U.S. Aid to Israel in Four Charts

[Celerity]

Israel has long been the leading recipient of U.S. foreign aid, including military support. That aid has come under heightened scrutiny amid Israel’s monthslong war to eliminate Hamas.

https://www.cfr.org/article/us-aid-israel-four-charts

U.S. and Israeli army officers talk in front a US Patriot missile defense system. Jack Guez/Getty Images

The United States was the first country to recognize the provisional government of the state of Israel upon its founding in 1948, and it has for many decades been a strong and steady supporter of the Jewish state. Israel has received hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. foreign aid in the post–World War II era, a level of support that reflects many factors, including a U.S. commitment to Israel’s security and the countries’ shared foreign policy interests in a volatile and strategically important part of the world. The two countries do not have a mutual defense pact, as the United States has with allies such as Japan and fellow members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). However, Israel is among a short list of “major non-NATO allies” and has privileged access to the most advanced U.S. military platforms and technologies.

About half of Americans hold favorable views of Israel, according to recent polls. But ongoing U.S. military aid to Israel has come under greater scrutiny amid Israel’s war with Hamas, now entering its seventh month. Israel is responding to the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 terrorist attack that killed more than 1,200 Israelis, the deadliest such attack in the country’s history. Some U.S. lawmakers and foreign leaders, the United Nations, human rights and activist groups, and other parties have voiced growing concern about the scale of Israel’s war to eliminate Hamas. They have been especially critical of its heavy bombing of the Gaza Strip, which has reportedly killed more than thirty-three thousand Palestinians—mostly civilians.

How much U.S. aid does Israel receive?

Israel has been the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign aid since its founding, receiving about $300 billion (adjusted for inflation) in total economic and military assistance. The United States has also provided large foreign aid packages to other Middle Eastern countries, particularly Egypt and Iraq, but Israel stands apart.



The United States provided Israel considerable economic assistance from 1971 to 2007, but nearly all U.S. aid today goes to support Israel’s military, the most advanced in the region. The United States has provisionally agreed (via a memorandum of understanding) to provide Israel with nearly $4 billion a year through 2028, and U.S. lawmakers are considering billions of dollars in supplementary funding for Israel amid its war with Hamas.



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