Exclusive — General Amir Avivi: Israel Needs to Be Independent from U.S. Aid

LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Brigadier General Amir Avivi (Res.) has a surprising message: Israel needs to wean itself from U.S. aid — while deepening U.S.-Israel relations through joint investments in the military technology of the future.

Avivi, a senior official in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), is the founder of the Israel Defense and Security Forum (IDSF), a conservative, nationalist think tank in Israel. He spoke exclusively to Breitbart News on the sidelines of the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) annual leadership meeting.

He said that while U.S. aid had been crucial to Israel decades ago, Israel has outgrown it — and it has become an unhealthy constraint:

I think that in the long term, we need to change the relations. We need to deepen them, but not base them on aid. I mean, twenty, thirty eyars ago, this aid was a huge part of Israel’s budget. But Israel has grown. It’s not a Third World country. It’s one of the leading economies in the world. And I think that Israel should invest in its own industries, and I think that definitely, I expect to see big investments of America in joint ventures with Israel, but it shouldn’t be in the form of aid. Aid is something that puts on Israel lots of restrictions, it hurts our sovereignty, and our ability to take care of our core interests, and therefore I think that in the long term it should be diminished until Israel is able to sustain its security needs without aid. But I think we can get even more money in mutual investments, and not necessarily in the form of aid.

Avivi’s view contrasts with that of the conventional political wisdom in Washington, where pro-Israel groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) have traditionally pushed for foreign aid funding for Israel. AIPAC has often judged the pro-Israel credentials of politicians based on whether they vote for foreign aid in Congress.

However, the ongoing war has highlighted the risks of aid. Because American military aid often requires that Israel spend the money in the U.S., Israel has outsourced its defense production to American companies. That has given the Biden administration leverage over Israeli military policy, as President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have both threatened to cut off weapons to Israel, in the middle of the war, if Israel disagrees with their policies.

Listen to Avivi’s full interview this Sunday evening on Breitbart News Sunday on SiriusXM Patriot 125, which airs weekly from 7-10 p.m. ET (4-7 p.m. PT).

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of “”The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.