The New MOU with Israel: Sold as “America First,” Built as America Last

As negotiations between Israel and the United States continue on a new MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) for another 10 or possibly 20 years of financial aid, Americans need to recognize the reality of what we are doing: We are putting the United States last. Another MOU is yet another costly entanglement in a region and country that will continue to undermine U.S. financial stability, tie the U.S. to more wars and conflicts in the region, and continue to hurt U.S. policy agendas at home.

The United States is now over $38 trillion in debt. We have added over $2.18T in national debt just from November 5 of last year to November of this year alone. Every dollar that the United States spends, especially overseas, is a dollar borrowed at interest against Americans’ futures. Writing and agreeing to a multi-year, multi-billion-dollar blank check to Israel is irresponsible and unsustainable, especially when Israel is a wealthy nation fully capable of funding its own defense.

The Scale of U.S. Aid to Israel and the Double Standard

The amount of U.S. aid to Israel is staggering. From 1946 to 2024, Israel received over $300 billion in economic and military assistance, of which $244 billion was military-specific. The 2016 MOU alone guaranteed $38 billion over ten years. Since the October 7, 2023 attack, emergency funding and additional military support have increased, totaling $16.3 billion in direct military aid. Billions more flow in emergency deployments, munitions, and intelligence support. Despite this massive amount of money, negotiations are looking to provide even more money to Israel and extend the commitments for another 20 years. These numbers may seem minuscule when compared to our national debt or our defense budget, which is now closing in on the trillion-dollar mark; however, the costs are just too high.

Proponents of past MOUs and this new one point to missile defense cooperation, especially the Iron Dome Missile Defense System. Yet there is a glaring problem: Israel refuses to share full Iron Dome technology with the U.S., even though our taxpayer dollars financed much of its development. The U.S. purchases the batteries and contributes to the procurement; however, Israel retains the technical data for the system. If Israel is America’s “Greatest Ally,” why are they withholding technology from the country that helped bankroll the development of the program? Why is the value entirely one-way? Those are the questions that Washington needs to look at before locking the U.S. into another decade or longer billion-dollar fiasco.

Myth of “America First” MOU

The defenders of this MOU are trying to frame it as consistent with Trump’s “MAGA” agenda; however, the reality is the opposite. This MOU would send billions of borrowed taxpayer dollars overseas while the U.S. faces a multitude of problems domestically. Trump’s touted ‘50-year mortgage,’ failing public education, and crumbling infrastructure, among the litany of other domestic issues, ensure that Americans will “own nothing and be happy about it.”

The reason the new MOU is for a possible 20 years has much to do with Israel’s public opinion polling in the United States. Polls now show a 59% unfavorable opinion of the Israeli government, up from 51% in 2024. A majority of Americans now are questioning whether U.S. taxpayers should continue to foot the bill for Israel’s military. Continuing to fund Israel’s military, especially with a twenty-year MOU, tries to ignore this shift in the public’s opinion on Israel by locking in the money now, before public opinion shifts even more negatively.

The United States must adopt a principled fiscal policy: No foreign aid. Not to Israel. Not to any nation. Every borrowed dollar sent abroad is a dollar spent on another nation’s priorities, and a dollar that deepens America’s dependence on taxing at higher rates. Foreign aid without fiscal responsibility is something the United States cannot continue to do. Ron Paul was correct in 2011 when he stated, “Foreign aid is taking money from the poor people of a rich country and giving it to the rich people of a poor country.” The even bigger problem this time, though, is that Israel is not a poor country; they are a well-developed first-world nation.

The Path Forward

Given the financial problems that the United States is facing, the lack of oversight, and the questionable abuses by Israel in Gaza, the path forward for the United States is apparent—no new MOU for Israel, especially one for ten or twenty more years. We must end all aid to Israel and any other foreign nation, especially while the U.S. is continuing to go into debt. We must require technological reciprocity for any defense programs bankrolled in part by the United States at any point in our past. Finally, better dialogues and conversations in Congress about funding foreign nations while the U.S. is in debt are needed.

The proposed MOU is framed as ‘strategic,’ ‘moral,’ or “America First.” In reality, it is a blank check signed by American taxpayers, an open-ended commitment that enriches another country while increasing American debt and risk. Israel receives billions annually, has received hundreds of billions historically, and continues to ask for more. Americans are increasingly losing support for unconditional support for Israel, and continuing on this path ignores public sentiment and entrenches the U.S. in the region’s conflicts and problems for another twenty years.

This policy and MOU are clear examples of “America Last” in action. U.S. taxpayers foot the bill for decades more of foreign entanglements in the Middle East while domestic problems linger. The path forward for the United States is clear: end all foreign aid, stop the multi-decade MOUs, and help solve America’s debt problem by ending unconditional support to any nation.

It is time to stop taxing Americans to bankroll the world and prioritize fiscal responsibility. Foreign aid must end, and Americans must come first.