How Much Money Does the US Give Israel Per Year?

The United States gives Israel about $3.8 billion per year in military aid, a figure locked in through fiscal year 2028 by a 10-year agreement signed in 2016. That total breaks down into $3.3 billion in Foreign Military Financing and $500 million for joint missile defense programs.¹ The $3.8 billion is a baseline, not a cap. Emergency supplementals passed by Congress have pushed the real annual total well above $12 billion in recent years.²

What the $3.8 Billion Pays For

The larger slice, $3.3 billion, comes through Foreign Military Financing. It functions as a credit line that Israel uses to buy American-made defense equipment. The money runs through the State Department’s budget and must be spent on U.S. weapons, vehicles, ammunition, and related services, which sends most of it back to American defense contractors like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Raytheon.³ Israel is the leading recipient of security assistance under this program worldwide.

A historical carve-out called Off-Shore Procurement once let Israel spend a portion of its FMF inside its own defense industry. When the current agreement took effect in 2019, that share was 26.3 percent. It phases down each year and reaches zero by fiscal 2028, meaning the entire $3.3 billion will eventually go to American-made goods.³ No other country has ever had this privilege.

The remaining $500 million funds cooperative missile defense, managed through the Department of Defense rather than the State Department.⁴ The money supports three layered systems:

Iron Dome, which intercepts short-range rockets and artillery shells.
David’s Sling, which handles medium-range threats such as cruise missiles and large rockets that fly above Iron Dome’s range.
Arrow II and Arrow III, designed to destroy ballistic missiles at high altitudes, including outside the atmosphere.

These are co-developed programs. American and Israeli engineers work on them jointly, with co-production arrangements that employ workers in both countries.

The 10-Year Agreement Behind the Number

The $3.8 billion figure comes from a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2016 by the Obama administration and the Israeli government. It covers fiscal years 2019 through 2028 and commits the United States to $38 billion in total, split into $33 billion in Foreign Military Financing and $5 billion for missile defense.⁵ At signing, it was the largest pledge of military assistance in U.S. history.

The MOU is a diplomatic agreement, not a binding appropriation. Congress still has to approve the money every year. In practice, every administration since has requested the full amount and Congress has appropriated it. The dollar figures are set in nominal terms with no inflation adjustment, so the real value of the aid drifts down slightly each year, though supplemental packages have more than made up the difference. The underlying legal authority for these transfers is the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.⁶

How Israel Actually Receives the Money

Israel gets its FMF differently from every other recipient. Since 1991, Congress has required the full $3.3 billion to be disbursed as a single lump sum within 30 days of the appropriations bill being signed.⁷ Other countries receive their FMF in installments as procurement contracts come due.

Once disbursed, the money sits in an interest-bearing account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Israel earns interest on the balance while it waits to be drawn down for weapons purchases. The interest has to stay in the U.S. procurement system and cannot be spent on Israeli-made products.⁷

When the Number Goes Higher: Supplemental Aid

The $3.8 billion baseline understates what Israel receives in years of active conflict. Congress can pass supplemental appropriations that are not counted against the MOU ceiling. The most recent large example is the Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2024 (Public Law 118-50), signed in April 2024 as part of a broader national security package.⁸

That law directed roughly $14 billion across its Israel-related division. The line items included $4 billion for Iron Dome and David’s Sling procurement, $1.2 billion for the newer Iron Beam laser defense system, $4.4 billion for U.S. military operations and stockpile replenishment tied to the conflict, about $800 million for ammunition, and additional funds for defense production capacity.⁸ Some of that money replenishes American stockpiles rather than transferring directly to Israel, but the practical effect is a much larger annual number than the MOU floor suggests.

The MOU sets a floor. It does not cap what Congress can approve in any given year.

Total U.S. Aid to Israel Over Time

Cumulative U.S. bilateral assistance and missile defense funding to Israel since the country’s founding totals approximately $174 billion in non-inflation-adjusted dollars. That makes Israel the largest overall recipient of American foreign aid since World War II.² Adjusted for inflation, the real total would be considerably higher.

The composition of the aid has shifted. Earlier decades combined economic grants, development loans, and military assistance. In 1998, Israel proposed phasing out its $1.2 billion in annual economic aid and rolling part of it into military assistance. By fiscal year 2008, economic aid had reached zero and has not returned.⁹ Every dollar of the current baseline is earmarked for military purposes.

Legal Conditions on the Aid

The money comes with strings, though how tightly they bind has been a matter of active political debate. Under the Foreign Assistance Act, any country receiving U.S. defense articles on a grant basis must agree not to transfer the equipment to third parties, not to use it for unauthorized purposes, and to allow U.S. representatives to observe how it is used.¹⁰

Separately, the Leahy Law prohibits military assistance to any foreign security force unit where credible information exists that the unit has committed a gross violation of human rights, unless the foreign government takes effective steps to bring those responsible to justice.¹¹ The law applies to all recipients of U.S. military aid, Israel included.

In February 2024, the Biden administration issued National Security Memorandum 20, requiring recipient countries to give written assurances that transferred weapons will be used in accordance with international humanitarian law and that the recipient will not arbitrarily restrict humanitarian aid deliveries in areas where those weapons are used.¹²

U.S. law also runs in the opposite direction. Whenever the executive branch proposes an arms sale to another Middle Eastern country, it must formally certify that the sale will not diminish Israel’s qualitative military edge.¹³ Arms sales and export licenses to Israel also receive an expedited 15-day congressional review, the same timeline given to NATO allies, rather than the 30 days applied to most other buyers.

1
United States Department of State. Ten-Year Memorandum of Understanding Between the United States and Israel
2
Congressional Research Service. U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel: Overview and Developments since October 7, 2023
3
United States Department of State. U.S. Security Cooperation with Israel
4
Congressional Research Service. U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel
5
The White House. Fact Sheet: Memorandum of Understanding Reached with Israel
6
U.S. Government Publishing Office. Foreign Assistance Act of 1961
7
Congressional Research Service. U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel: Overview and Developments since October 7, 2023
8
Congress.gov. Public Law 118-50 – Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024
9
Congressional Research Service. U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 22 Section 2314 – Furnishing of Defense Articles or Related Training or Other Defense Service on Grant Basis
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 22 Section 2378d – Limitation on Assistance to Security Forces
12
Congressional Research Service. Israel and U.S. Aid: Humanitarian Access in Gaza
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 22 Section 2776 – Reports and Certifications to Congress on Military Exports