Trump says: No more aid for Israel. Look who will suffer.
Say that President Trump’s announcement of the end of military aid to Israel sticks. There are many reasons it might not: Trump reverses himself all the time; the US is legally bound by a 10-year memorandum of aid to Israel that doesn’t end until 2028; there are means of extending military aid to Israel other than via Congressional approval of foreign aid.
But say Trump’s announcement sticks. All manner of congresspeople will wonder over time where many jobs in their districts went. Most of this American “aid to Israel” is spent in the US, boosting the economy via arms production throughout the US. When that aid is ended, look who will suffer.
No doubt, it will take time for Israel to develop its own manufacturing plants, but Israel will no longer be bound to American facilities, procedures or specifications.
Nor will Israel be bound to policies of the US that — we hope we are wrong! — look to be determined by more and more anti-Israel and anti-Semitic congresspeople. We write before the results of the Nov. 3 midterms are in, but the trend is clear. What was once a four-person “squad” of anti-Israel congresspeople has expanded. Over time, Abdul El-Sayed or others like him will fulminate. Not so much Israeli Jews, but American Jews will suffer.
In Trump’s announcement, there is a critical message for the American Jewish community.
We have argued on these pages for some 40 years that American Jewish spending priorities have been misplaced. For decades, American Jewry has send the bulk of its philanthropic dollars to a State of Israel that was no longer on the verge of bankruptcy, or anything close. When Golda Meir made her famous trip in the US to raise $50 million for the fledgling State of Israel in 1948, that sum made the difference for the economic survival of Israel. By the mid-1980s, Israel had succeeded sufficiently to support itself, while Diaspora Jewish youth were melting away — and Diaspora leaders did not invest in them.
Nothing drastic was done 40 years ago and American Jewry has shrunk.
Our voice has weakened.
Which leads to the downside of Trump’s plan. It’s not economic. It’s a smaller and therefore less vocal and less influential American Jewish voice. As Trump’s new plan unfolds (again, if it does), American Jewry might find itself needing to defend the good name of Israel much less than needing to defend itself. The anti-Semitic fulminations have already cascaded down upon us. Reality check: Ask yourself how many American synagogues had iron fences around them before the Pittsburgh synagogue attack in October, 2018. And how many have them now — either that, or how many expend huge sums on other, alternative forms of security.
Even though the ties between Israel and the American Diaspora have frayed somewhat, they will loom immeasurably stronger in retrospect if the Israel-American military bond is severed. All the current fallacious attacks on Israel notwithstanding, the strength of Israel still strengthens our shrinking American Jewish community. Trump’s plan will undercut that.
© IJN 2026
