Washington and Tel Aviv: Is Their Alliance Really Forever?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had already floated the idea, some time ago, of ending Israel’s dependence on American support. He did so with considerable bravado, claiming that his country was perfectly capable of doing without such unlimited assistance. Yet US President Donald Trump’s remarks about ending that support at the close of 2026 came as a surprise, both in their timing and in the deadline they suggested. They raise serious questions about Israel’s actual ability to “hold out” without direct US political, economic and military backing.

To understand the historical scale of this support, consider that its cumulative value is estimated at around $175 billion since the Nakba and the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. This is an astronomical sum, unmatched by American assistance to any other country and, indeed, by the support provided by any state to another anywhere in the world. The figure exceeds all expectations and goes beyond what could reasonably be justified, even among allies, particularly when assistance flows in only one direction. A fundamental question should therefore be asked in the United States: does America really need to pour so many resources into an ally that tarnishes its reputation around the world, especially in the Arab region, and draws it into endless wars?

Annual US assistance to Israel amounts to approximately $3.8 billion. Under former President Joe Biden, however, it reached around $12.5 billion following Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood,” when Tel Aviv rallied international support for its war on the Gaza Strip. That war killed more than 75,000 Palestinians and brought about the complete destruction of the enclave, including its healthcare and educational facilities, as well as its social, cultural and sporting infrastructure. Israel has also continued its policy of strangling Gaza by preventing humanitarian convoys from entering in numbers sufficient to meet the population’s actual needs. Hunger and famine continue to threaten Gaza’s residents.

No observer can ignore the fact that Washington’s uninterrupted support for Tel Aviv has provided Israel with international protection for decades, allowing it to escape punishment, accountability and even scrutiny, particularly within international institutions and tribunals. This impunity has enabled Israel to pursue its aggressive policies not only against the Palestinian people but also against all its neighbors. It continues to expand and bomb Lebanon and Syria relentlessly, intensifies its assaults on the West Bank, and presses ahead with its efforts to Judaize Jerusalem and distort its Arab identity.

Washington is estimated to have used its veto power in the United Nations Security Council around 70 times since the mid-1970s to protect Israel. Time and again, this has blocked attempts to hold Israel politically, legally or even morally responsible for its continuing occupation of Palestinian territories.

Even the familiar refrain of the “two-state solution,” repeated by successive US administrations despite their failure to exert sufficient pressure on Israel to secure any meaningful steps toward its realization, has disappeared entirely under Trump. He prefers to pursue other approaches. At times, it is the Abraham Accords, which have delivered no real breakthrough beyond normalization granted without anything in return. At others, it is the idea of treating Gaza as an enormous piece of real estate ripe for investment. And then comes the suggestion that Israel’s territory is simply too small and that expanding it might be worthwhile!

Meanwhile, Israel continues its policy of gradual territorial encroachment in the West Bank and neighboring countries. It fragments the West Bank, erects checkpoints, divides areas into different administrative categories, carries out arrests and disregards even the most basic rules governing occupation. This is without mentioning the establishment of new settlements and the expansion of existing ones, or the open and explicit protection its army provides to settler gangs that terrorize local residents and indigenous communities, attack them, demolish their homes and seek to drive them forcibly from their land and deprive them of their livelihoods. These settlers also prevent Palestinians from harvesting their olives and gathering their agricultural produce. All these measures are designed to transform realities on the ground and make any return to the situation that existed before 1967 impossible.

Yet a long time will pass before we witness any serious transformation in US-Israeli relations, despite what some may be counting on. It is true that American public opinion has begun to change. But that factor alone is not enough to justify expectations that Washington will reconsider its policy of absolute alignment with Israel. The emergence of political figures such as New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed may, in some respects, represent the beginnings of the long-awaited changes. But these developments could also give the far right an opportunity to attack such fledgling political experiments and renew its warnings about Islam and Muslims, exploiting the Islamophobia that has spread throughout Western societies, not merely American society.

There is no doubt that public awareness in the United States is growing, both in breadth and depth. But awareness alone will not suffice without sustained, organized political and grassroots action capable of creating new realities, forcing a reassessment of the prevailing situation and ultimately changing the current course, or at least gradually altering its direction.