BICOM

The United States has announced that an impending military aid agreement with Israel will constitute its largest military aid package with any country in history.

Speaking at the American Jewish Committee’s Global Forum, United States’ National Security Advisor Susan Rice addressed protracted talks over a new agreement for United States’ military aid towards Israel. The current memorandum of understanding details a defence package worth more than £2 billion, but is due to expire in 2017. The two countries have been discussing a new ten-year agreement, but gaps appear to remain on the financial extent of the deal and the military hardware it will include.

Rice pledged: “Even in these days of belt-tightening, we are prepared to sign the single largest military assistance package with any country in history.”

She added that although Israel already “receives more than half of the US’s entire foreign military assistance budget,” the new agreement will “constitute a significant increase in support”. Rice said that “Israel’s security is not a Democratic interest or a Republican interest. It is an American interest”. Consequently, “Israel’s enemies are on notice – if you come at Israel by land, by sea, by air or even under the earth, you will lose.”

Rice also condemned obsessive attacks on Israel at the United Nations and other international forums, including Palestinian terrorism. However, Rice added that Israeli “settlement activity corrodes the possibility of two states…it moves us toward a one-state reality”.

At the same conference, Israel’s opposition leader and Zionist Union head Isaac Herzog said that a regional peace with Sunni Arab neighbours is possible, describing “something of an informal Sunni Arab version of a regional NATO, which identifies the same threats as Israel”. He urged Washington to take a leading role in the process, saying: “Today there is a golden opportunity, which the United States should lead and which the international community should support with no reservations.”