World Trump: U.S. & Israel Agree to Stop Foreign Assistance

[Webster]

(The Guardian) Trump tells Fox he'll slash aid to Israel by end of this year
In an interview with Fox & Friends this morning, in which he made a meandering final pitch to Americans voting in the 2026 midterm election, Trump said that he had agreed with Benjamin Netanyahu to cut off $4 billion of US military aid to Israel.”

“Bibi Netanyahu and I have made a deal,” Trump said. “We give Isreal $4 billion a year, and we made a deal months ago that we’re stopping. And they’re fine with it, because, you know, they’ve become a very successful country. They don’t need it. And we won’t be paying anymore to Israel.”

Trump said that the deal came at the insistence of Netanyahu, whose political future is in doubt following an Israeli election that failed to deliver the longtime prime minister a clear majority.

US ties to Israel, the country’s conduct in Gaza, and the conflict with Iran have become major issues in the 2026 midterm election.

 

[Frankj]

I imagine there is quite a bit more to this than is being told.

In ME politics, nothing is as it seems.

 

[Webster]

In ME politics, nothing is as it seems.

To understand ME politics Frank, you kinda have to understand the religious/political histories of the region.

Within the ME, you have three Islamic spheres of influence - Saudi Arabia, Iran and Turkiye. The Saudi sphere is an obvious home; the Arabian Peninsula is where the Muslim prophet Muhammed lived and is where the Islamic holy sites of Mecca and Medina are located. Its' not for nothing that the Saudis regard themselves as the "Guardians of Islam".

Iran has its' own sphere due to its' status as the home of Shia Islam (the Saudis are Sunni by comparison) and is home to the religious city of Qom and is next door to the Iraqi cities of Najaf and Karbala, both of which carry heavy significance in Shia Islam as holy sites as well.

Turkiye's sphere comes from the centuries it ruled over the region as the former Ottoman Empire and depending on who you ask, Erdogan styles himself a modern-day Ottoman Sultan who'd like to recreate that empire if he could get away with it.

Now, while they all love to gripe, complain and moan at each other, up until a few years they all had a common enemy in the Jewish State of Israel. Now, while Iran is a sworn enemy of the Jewish people and Turkish relations with Israel are lower than whale crap, the Saudis have a working friendship w/Israel. El Al flights travel from Tel Aviv to Riyadh a few times a week, the countries regularly share intel data w/each other and during periods of the current Iran War, the Saudis went so far as to allow the Israelis overflight privileges through Saudi airspace.