Strategic Assessment

In early March 2007, a high level Israeli delegation arrived in Washington in order to open negotiations about a new long term agreement on American financial aid to Israel. According to the previous agreement signed in 1998, next year will see the culmination of a ten year process that gradually reduced American annual assistance by 20 percent, from 3 to 2.4 billion dollars, by eliminating all economic aid. The Israeli delegation requested to reverse this process, and to restore American aid back to its 1998 annual level for military procurement, without reinstating economic aid. This is not necessarily a wise course.