Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — The United States has pledged to maintain military aid
to Israel for the next 15 years.

President Barack Obama has agreed to maintain Foreign Military Financing
to Israel through 2027. Under the agreement, announced on March 20, Obama
pledged to guarantee U.S. military aid, now at $3.1 billion a year, in an
effort to preserve what he termed Israel’s qualitative edge.

“Our current agreement lasts through 2017, and we’ve directed our teams
to start working on extending it for the years beyond,” Obama said.

Israel and the United States have been implementing an agreement to
maintain American military assistance for the next four years. That
agreement, signed in 2007, increased annual U.S. aid from $2.4 billion to
$3.1 billion.

“As part of our long-term commitment to Israel’s security, the prime
minister and I agreed to begin discussions on extending military
assistance,” Obama told a news conference in Jerusalem with Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The latest agreement came amid Israeli concerns that Washington would
reduce military aid to the Jewish state as part of massive budget cuts by
the administration. Under the policy known as sequestration, officials
warned that U.S. military aid to allies would be reduced over the next year.

But Obama pledged not to interrupt current U.S. aid programs for
Israel’s military. He cited a U.S. allocation of $205 million for production
of Israel’s Iron Dome missile and rocket defense system.

Officials said the president’s announcement was part of his strategy to
urge Israel to approve the establishment of a Palestinian state in 2014 as
well as abandon plans to attack Iran. They said Obama pledged to Israeli
leaders that he would use all means, including military, to stop any Iranian
nuclear weapon.

“I’m absolutely convinced that the president is determined to prevent
Iran from getting nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said at the news conference.

But aides to Netanyahu expressed skepticism over Obama’s pledge to
maintain current levels of U.S. military aid amid massive budget cuts at the
Defense Department. They cited previous U.S. pledges of aid, including that
of President Bill Clinton in 2000, which remain unfulfilled, partly because
of opposition by Congress.

“The U.S. budget situation is such that long-term planning is
impossible,” an Israeli source said.

  Benjamin Netanyhau, Iron Dome, Obama agrees to maintain military funding to Israel through 2027, Obama pledge on military funding to Israel called part of strategy, U.S. defense budget cuts