US Taxpayers Are Funding the Gift Card Israel Uses to Buy US Weapons

The Trump administration expects US taxpayers to fund not only its own military adventurism but Israel’s as well.

Ending American subsidies for Israel’s wars is one reason why Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) recently filed Joint Resolutions of Disapproval opposing $659 million in President Donald Trump-approved bomb sales to Israel, with many of the bombs coming directly from US stocks.

“Given the horrific destruction that Israel’s extremist government has wrought on Gaza, Iran, and Lebanon, the last thing in the world that American taxpayers need to do right now is to provide 22,000 new bombs to the [Benjamin] Netanyahu government,” Sanders said in a statement.

Van Hollen added that “Congress must use all the tools at our disposal to end Trump’s war, including stopping the transfer… of taxpayer-funded bombs to the Netanyahu government.”

All told, US taxpayers funded $17.8 billion in arms sales to Israel under President Joe Biden—$11.9 billion government-brokered and $5.9 billion commercial—81% of the $22 billion in sales from 2021-2024.

The senators are right to highlight US taxpayers’ role in these arms deals. That they’re reported as sales belies who’s actually paying for them. Americans, not Israelis, pay for the vast majority of US arms sales to Israel.

Who Really Pays for US Arms Sales to Israel

US arms sales to Israel aren’t really sales, at least not in the typical sense. Israel’s position as purchaser in these weapons deals isn’t synonymous with funder. This is made clear in the arms sales notifications themselves.

Consider the four most recent notified arms sales to Israel published in the Federal Register: $740 million for armored personnel carriers, $1.98 billion for tactical vehicles and accessories, $3.8 billion for attack helicopters and related weaponry, and $150 million for utility helicopters and parts. After “Prospective Purchaser,” all these notifications list Government of Israel. After “Funding Source,” all list Foreign Military Financing—or FMF, the US military aid program through which Israel receives at least $3.3 billion a year.

In practice, FMF functions as a gift card for Israel to spend on weapons. US taxpayers are stuck paying for the gift card. The only trace of Israeli funding in those $6.7 billion in arms sales is in the tactical vehicle deal, where National Funds follows FMF on the funding source line.

What about the pair of sales including 22,000 bombs, objected to by Sanders, et al.? Both deals are funded by FMF, or in other words, US taxpayers.

This is, of course, a small sample size. But four years of arms sales data tell the same story: Israel doesn’t pay for most of the weapons the US sells it—US taxpayers do.

This fact undermines the economic justification for these arms sales. By foreclosing any claims that they bring significant foreign investment into the US, the case for these sales collapses into the same flawed job creations argument that many hawks use to defend lavish government spending on the military.

The jobs argument is itself a tacit admission of a weak national security justification. A policy that truly concerned the nation’s very existence wouldn’t have to be sold in terms as banal as job creation. The security justification alone would be convincing enough.

Military spending is the least efficient way a government can create jobs. Using military aid to boost employment is like buying a plane ticket to watch a film: Yes, there’s an in-flight movie; no, that doesn’t justify the expense.

Even that analogy is generous. The relationship between military spending and jobs is not self-evident. In 1985, the US military budget was $295 billion—$746 billion in today’s dollars—and there were 3 million workers in the US arms industry. By 2021, the US military budget had increased by $132 billion in real terms—to $879 billion—while the number of arms industry workers had dropped to 1.1 million. Despite military spending increasing 18% above inflation, there was a 63% drop in arms industry employment.

Under Biden, US Taxpayers Funded $18 Billion in Arms “Sales” to Israel

American arms sales are either US government brokered (“Foreign Military Sales”) or commercial (“Direct Commercial Sales”). I collected data on both via the Defense Security Cooperation Agency’s (DSCA) Historical Sales Books and the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls’ (DDTC) Section 655 Reports, respectively. Both yearly publications tally the value of authorized arms sales.

The Biden administration authorized $22 billion in arms sales to Israel, including more than $13.2 billion in US government-brokered sales and over $8.7 billion in commercial sales. According to the DSCA report, 90% of the government-brokered deals were funded with US military aid. The DDTC report doesn’t specify the funding source, but 68% is a reasonable estimate based on the average annual share of FMF funding that Israel reportedly spends on commercial sales.

All told, US taxpayers funded $17.8 billion in arms sales to Israel under President Joe Biden—$11.9 billion government-brokered and $5.9 billion commercial—81% of the $22 billion in sales from 2021-2024. That’s nearly $18 billion in subsidies disguised as sales.

US taxpayers deserve a refund, not more of the same from Trump.