Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he seeks to end US military aid to Israel within a decade, earning praise from a key ally of US President Donald Trump, whose voter base has splintered over the issue.

“I want to taper off the military aid within the next 10 years,” Netanyahu said in an interview with The Economist that was conducted Thursday and published Friday. Asked if he meant “to taper it off to zero,” Netanyahu said yes.

Under a military aid package negotiated in 2016, Israel receives some $3.8 billion annually from the US, mostly in the form of subsidies to buy American-made arms. The aid package, which took effect in 2018, is set to expire in 2028.

Netanyahu said he would not seek its full renewal.

“We want to be as independent as possible,” he stated. Referring to his meeting with the US leader in Florida late last month, Netanyahu added: “In my visit to President Trump, I said we very deeply appreciate the military aid that America has given us over the years, but here too we’ve come of age, and we’ve developed incredible capacities.”

US Senator Lindsey Graham, chairman of a US Senate subcommittee that oversees military aid, welcomed Netanyahu’s commitment to wean Israel off US assistance and vowed to present a proposal “to dramatically expedite the........

© The Times of Israel