US Congress Not to Be Bound by New Deal to Allocate Military Aid to Israel

US Senator and former Republican presidential candidate Lindsey Graham said that he will not consider the US-Israel memorandum of understanding (MOU) as binding on Congress.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik), Leandra Bernstein — The US Congress will not be bound to the annual funding limits agreed in the US-Israel memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the military aid, US Senator and former Republican presidential candidate Lindsey Graham told Sputnik.

"They can sign it, it’s up to them, but I will not consider the MOU as binding on Congress and we can appropriate based on our own view of the situation," Graham said regarding the agreement signed by US and Israeli representatives on Wednesday.

In its 2017 budget, the US Senate appropriated $3.4 billion for Israeli defense plus $600 million aimed to boost the Israeli missile defense, a figure that goes beyond the yearly $3.3-billion funding agreed in the Obama administration’s ten-year aid package.

The MOU is set to go into effect from fiscal year 2019 through 2028, replacing the previous MOU, which granted Israel $3.1 billion annually.

During a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other US lawmakers, Graham concluded that the threats to Israel from Iran, Hezbollah and a growing Islamic State presence in the Sinai Penninsula warranted the increase in funds appropriated by Congress, and rejected by the Obama administration.

"That is not right. We are not going to be bound by that. We are going to push back," he stated. Despite agreeing to the largest US defense aid deal in history, the MOU "basically deals Congress out," Graham pointed out.

The ten-year US-Israel defense agreement consists of $33 billion in foreign military financing and $5 billion in missile defense. Both Obama and Netanyahu welcomed the historic agreement as an affirmation of US-Israeli partnership and friendship.