Nation’s defense firms to lose over $1b. annually with U.S. aid deal
(Worthy News) – The Israeli arms industry is expected to lose $1.3 billion in revenue each year and as many as 22,000 workers could lose their jobs when the latest agreement for military aid from the US kicks in at the end of this year, the Defense Ministry warned at a Knesset Finance Committee meeting on Monday.
Committee chairman Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) called to renegotiate the 10-year aid agreement with the US, because it “will increase aid, but our society will crumble from the inside.”
The Memorandum of Understanding negotiated between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-US president Barack Obama’s administration changed the previous terms of military aid. Until now, up to 26% of the aid, adding up to billions of shekels each year, could be spent inside Israel. In the new deal that will gradually be phased out beginning at the end of the US’s government’s Fiscal Year 2018 (i.e., on October 1, 2018), until all American military aid will have to be spent in the US, resulting in losses for local industry. [ Source: Jerusalem Post (Read More…) ]