..That MOU, like its predecessor, continues to permit lavish subsidies for basic supplies – food and fuel – core to the offensive needs of the IDF, rather than the purely high-tech “defensive” infrastructure touted by the White House, is troubling. At its worst, the MOU could incentivize Israel to engage in offensive war, in order to be permitted to lobby congress for funding framed as “key to its survival.” In the MOU, Israel pledges not to seek additional funding “except in exceptional circumstances…such as in the event of a major armed conflict involving Israel.” The MOU is silent on whether Israel is allowed to seek addition funding if it is clearly the aggressor. The only requirement is that it is “jointly agreed by the US administration and Israel” that there are indeed “exceptional circumstances” that demand MOU limits be broken. In the decades spanning Israel’s existence since 1948, military conflicts have been much more the rule than exception. More
2019-2028 US-Israel MOU (PDF)