Report: Heritage Foundation recommends ending aid to Israel by 2047

The Heritage Foundation has prepared a draft proposal ending direct US aid to Israel by 2047, the hundredth year of Israel's existence, according to a report by Jewish Insider today (Wednesday).

The proposal was set to be presented at an event scheduled for today, which has since been cancelled, after Israeli US Ambassador Yehiel Leiter withdrew his planned participation from the event.

According to Jewish Insider, which obtained a copy of the draft report, the idea is to use the 2028 expiration date of the current Memorandum of Understanding — which requires the U.S. to provide $3.8 billion of security assistance to Israel annually and must be renegotiated in 2026 — as an “opportunity” to “forge a new relationship with the State of Israel.”

The plan advises initially increasing the amount of aid provided to Israel to $4 billion annually beginning in 2029, but decreasing it by $250 million annually starting in 2032 until the aid is stopped completely by the end of fiscal year 2047 (“to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Israel’s independence,” the report notes). 

At the same time, beginning in 2039, Israel will be required to increase its purchasing of U.S. defense equipment by $250 million per year until it reaches $2.25 billion in 2047. This is less than the amount Israel currently purchases from the U.S. annually — since taking office, the Trump administration has already approved nearly $12 billion in defense equipment sales to Israel, though it should be noted that these are wartime, not peacetime or routine weapons sales.

While Israel began phasing out civilian aid from the United States under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's first term in the 1990s, ending entirely by 2007, defense aid has been a different story, and Israel received a particularly large amount of aid during the current war.

While securing defense aid from the United States has long been a bipartisan and cross-partisan goal for both countries, not everyone agrees that it's good for Israel to be dependent on American aid.

Tablet Magazine published an editorial by Jacob Siegel and Liel Liebowitz arguing that US defense aid harms Israel's own defense industry and makes the country too dependent on Washington's broader strategic goals, which align with the American interest but not always the Israeli ones. Multiple American commentators responded that this would be a mistake.