Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he wants American financial support for Israel drawn "down to zero", and that he has already raised the matter with President Donald Trump. The remarks, delivered during a CBS "60 Minutes" interview on May 10, 2026, mark the most explicit public call by a sitting Israeli leader to end the $3.8 billion annual military aid package that has anchored the U.S.-Israel security relationship for years.
Netanyahu laid out a ten-year timeline. He said he does not want to wait for a future Congress to begin the drawdown. And he framed the move not as a concession to critics of Israel but as a step toward self-reliance.
CBS News' Major Garrett asked Netanyahu whether he believed it was time for Israel to reset its financial relationship with the United States. The prime minister did not hedge. He told Garrett:
"Absolutely. And I've said this to President Trump. I've said it in, to our own people. I want to draw down to zero the American financial support, the financial component of the military cooperation that we have."
Netanyahu specified the dollar figure at stake. Israel receives $3.8 billion a year in U.S. military support, he said, and he believes the time has come for Israel to wean itself from that aid.
He was equally direct about his preferred pace, as the Washington Examiner reported:
"I said, let's start now and do it over the next decade, over the next 10 years, but I want to start now. I don't want to wait for the next Congress. I want to start now."
That language, "I don't want to wait for the next Congress", signals Netanyahu's intent to lock the process in during the current legislative session, while political conditions in Washington may be favorable.
The $3.8 billion annual package stems from a ten-year memorandum of understanding signed during the Obama administration. It has been a fixture of U.S.-Israel relations, defended by both parties in Congress as an investment in Middle East stability. For Netanyahu to publicly call for its elimination, even on a gradual timeline, represents a notable departure.
Netanyahu has long argued that Israel pulls its own weight in the alliance. But the interview marks the first time he has put a concrete number and timeline on ending the aid while sitting in the prime minister's chair.
His political standing at home and abroad has been under constant scrutiny. Israel's opposition leader has called a U.S.-Iran ceasefire a "political disaster" for Netanyahu, and critics on the left have accused him of entangling American foreign policy in Israeli objectives.
By volunteering to phase out U.S. aid, Netanyahu may be trying to neutralize one of those lines of attack, that Israel is overly dependent on American taxpayer dollars, while positioning himself as a leader willing to make a hard choice for sovereignty.
The prime minister did not limit his remarks to aid. He addressed the broader security picture in the Middle East, particularly the unfinished campaign against Iran's nuclear and proxy capabilities.
"I think it accomplished a great deal, but it's not over, because there's still nuclear material, enriched uranium that has to be taken out of Iran. There are still enrichment sites that have to be dismantled. There are still proxies that Iran supports. There are ballistic missiles that they still want to produce."
Netanyahu added: "Now, we've degraded a lot of it, but all that is still there, and there's work to be done."
That assessment, that the threat from Tehran remains active, sits in tension with the aid drawdown proposal. If the conflict with Iran and its proxies is far from over, the decision to begin reducing American military support carries real strategic risk. Netanyahu appears to be betting that Israel's domestic defense industry and growing economic power can fill the gap over a decade.
The Iranian regime has made its hostility toward Netanyahu personal. Tehran has openly threatened to kill the Israeli prime minister, raising the stakes of any move that could be read as weakening the U.S.-Israel security umbrella.
Netanyahu also offered a pointed diagnosis of why American public opinion has shifted against Israel. He tied the change directly to social media, and to foreign manipulation of online platforms.
"We have seen the deterioration of the support for Israel in the United States almost, I would say, it correlates almost 100% with the geometric rise of social media."
He was careful to say that social media alone was not the sole cause. But he went further, accusing unnamed countries of manipulating online platforms in ways that have damaged Israel's standing.
"And I don't believe in, you know, in censoring them or anything. But I'll tell you what happened. We have several countries that basically manipulated social media. And they do it in a clever way. And that's something that has hurt us badly."
Netanyahu did not name the countries he was referring to. But the implication, that hostile foreign actors have waged an information campaign against Israel on American social media, fits a pattern Israeli officials have alleged for years.
He also defended Israel's conduct in military operations, saying the country has gone to "unbelievable lengths" to protect innocent civilians. He cited millions of text messages, millions of phone calls, and the distribution of pamphlets and leaflets as evidence of those efforts.
That defense comes at a time when prominent American politicians like California Governor Gavin Newsom have labeled Israel an "apartheid state", rhetoric that Netanyahu's social media argument is clearly designed to counter.
For American conservatives who have long supported Israel but also demand fiscal discipline, Netanyahu's proposal lands in a complicated spot. On one hand, the idea of an ally voluntarily reducing its claim on the U.S. treasury is exactly the kind of self-sufficiency Washington should encourage. On the other, a drawdown during an active and unresolved conflict with Iran raises legitimate questions about timing and readiness.
Netanyahu's relationship with President Trump has been a defining feature of both men's political lives. Trump greeted Netanyahu at the White House on September 29, 2025, and the two spoke at the Knesset in Jerusalem on October 13, 2025. The fact that Netanyahu says he has already discussed the aid drawdown with Trump suggests the proposal is not a unilateral surprise but part of an ongoing conversation between the two leaders.
Trump has previously pressed Netanyahu to dial back military strikes in Lebanon, signaling that the American president is willing to push Israel toward restraint when he believes the situation calls for it. A mutual agreement to phase out aid over a decade would fit that pattern, a handshake between allies who respect each other's sovereignty.
Netanyahu's "60 Minutes" appearance raises as many questions as it answers. He spoke of drawing down "the financial component of the military cooperation", but the full scope of U.S.-Israel military ties extends well beyond the annual $3.8 billion. Intelligence sharing, joint weapons development, and emergency resupply arrangements are separate channels. Whether those would be affected remains unclear.
Congress would have to act on any formal changes to the aid package. Netanyahu's insistence on starting now, during this Congress, suggests he wants a legislative commitment before the political winds shift. Whether he can get one is another matter entirely.
The prime minister has also been managing personal challenges alongside the geopolitical ones. He recently disclosed quiet treatment for early-stage prostate cancer, citing fears that Iran would exploit news of his health for propaganda purposes, a reminder that leadership under pressure is never just about policy.
An ally that asks to stand on its own feet deserves to be taken seriously. Whether Israel can afford to follow through, with Iranian enrichment sites still spinning and proxy networks still armed, is the question Netanyahu will have to answer with more than words on a Sunday-night broadcast.
