How does US aid to Israel in 2024–2025 compare to previous fiscal years and to aid to other Middle East partners?
Executive summary
U.S. support for Israel in 2024–25 surged far above the pre-war baseline: Congress and the administration approved at least $8.7 billion in an April 2024 supplemental plus the regular MOU-level $3.8 billion per year, bringing direct military appropriations in that window to roughly $16.3 billion according to Council on Foreign Relations accounting [1]. Other independent tallies put the figure of emergency and wartime support even higher—AP and Watson/Brown highlight totals of roughly $17.9 billion in wartime security assistance and related spending estimates of $22.8 billion for U.S. operations tied to the conflict [2] [3].
1. A wartime spike that dwarfs the MOU baseline
Israel’s long-running 2016 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) set a baseline near $3.8 billion per year in U.S. military assistance; in 2024 Congress added a major supplemental, including an April 2024 package of about $8.7 billion, plus appropriations for FY2024 and FY2025 that continued MOU-level transfers, yielding at least $16.3 billion in direct military appropriations for 2024–25 in CFR’s accounting [1]. Separate reporting counts at least $17.9 billion approved for security assistance since Oct. 7, 2023, underlining that 2024–25 spending is substantially larger than typical single fiscal years [2] [3].
2. Different tallies, different emphases — why numbers vary
Analysts disagree on exact totals because some counts include only direct Foreign Military Financing (FMF) appropriations while others add weapons sales notifications, emergency munitions transfers and related U.S. military operations in the region. Council on Foreign Relations focuses on legislative appropriations ($8.7bn supplemental plus $3.8bn FY24–25) [1]. Watson/Brown and AP use a broader frame that counts presidential notifications, arms transfers and operational costs, which produces higher figures such as $17.9 billion or upward estimates of $22.7 billion when U.S. regional operations are included [2] [3].
3. How 2024–25 compares with prior years
The scale of aid in 2024–25 is historically large compared with prior single-year U.S. assistance to Israel: Watson/Brown notes $17.9 billion approved for operations since Oct. 7, 2023 is “substantially more than in any other year” since U.S. military assistance to Israel began in 1959 [3]. CFR’s breakdown frames the supplemental as an extraordinary addition to the standing $3.8 billion annual pledge that comes from periodic multi-year MOUs [1].
4. Relative to other Middle East partners
Available sources do not provide a comprehensive side‑by‑side breakdown of 2024–25 U.S. aid totals to other Middle East partners within the supplied documents. The CRS overview and EveryCRSReport focus on Israel’s packages, arms transfers and export notifications but do not enumerate contemporaneous totals for countries such as Egypt, Jordan or Saudi Arabia in the excerpts provided [4] [5]. Therefore, a precise comparison to other partners is not found in current reporting supplied here.
5. The policy and political context behind the surge
Lawmakers justified emergency transfers as security assistance during a war and in response to regional escalation, while administrations have used executive authorities to notify Congress of arms sales and munitions shipments; CFR notes the 2024 supplemental and FY24–25 appropriations as the legislative vehicles [1]. Political contention has been intense: some members of Congress and advocacy groups pushed for pauses or conditions on shipments over humanitarian concerns, and reporting shows pauses and later approvals for heavy munitions transfers in 2024 [6] [5].
6. Competing narratives in the sources
Pro-Israel or defense-oriented sources emphasize the necessity of maintaining Israel’s qualitative edge and the role of U.S. aid in deterrence [6] [7]. Independent research institutes and watchdogs highlight the unprecedented scale and question whether U.S. regional operations and related costs are being fully accounted for, producing higher aggregate estimates [3] [8]. These differing framings shape whether the 2024–25 spending is presented as routine MOU fulfilment plus targeted emergency help, or as an exceptional wartime surge.
7. Limits of the available reporting
The supplied documents diverge on methods and scope: CFR and Congressional Research Service material centers on enacted appropriations and statutory language [1] [4], while AP, Watson/Brown and think-tank reports aggregate approvals, notifications and operational costs to reach larger totals [2] [3]. The current reporting here does not list contemporaneous aid totals to other Middle East recipients for a direct apples‑to‑apples comparison [4] [5]. Any precise ranking or per‑country comparison would require additional data not included in these sources.
Bottom line: 2024–25 saw a clearly atypical and large U.S. financial commitment to Israel, with enacted supplements and arms transfers pushing totals well above the usual $3.8 billion annual MOU baseline; exact totals depend on whether one counts only legislative appropriations or also arms-sale notifications and associated U.S. operations, producing differing estimates cited above [1] [2] [3].