Above photo: Israeli Defense Ministry.
Netanyahu recently claimed Tel Aviv is seeking to ‘taper off’ its dependence on US military aid.
Washington may bankroll the construction of a new Israeli armored vehicle plant with up to $2 billion from military aid funds, according to US documents cited by Haaretz newspaper.
Last year, an Israeli ministerial panel for defense procurement approved the “Armored Vehicle Acceleration Project,” an initiative aimed at boosting the production rate of Israel’s Merkava tank, as well as its Namer and Eitan personnel carriers.
The initiative is meant to span a five-year period.
Two US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) presentations cited by Haaretz show that Washington is likely to take part in financing, designing, and constructing the “Joint Systems Manufacturing Center.”
“We are exploring the potential for a multibillion-dollar Joint Systems Manufacturing Center (JSMC) project, which could be a pivotal next step for the program,” one of the presentations reads.
The project was initially set to cost $1.5 billion. In August last year, the Jerusalem Post reported that none of the announcements related to the project included foreign funding.
This would increase Washington’s annual aid budget of $3.8 billion to Israel. Aside from the annual aid, the US has provided Israel with $21.7 billion in direct military assistance since the start of the Gaza genocide.
The Haaretz report comes days after Israeli Prime Minister and wanted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu claimed in an interview with The Economist that Israel hopes to “taper off” its dependence on US military aid in the next decade.
It also comes as Haaretz is being accused of “supporting the enemy in time of war” over its reporting about the Gaza Strip.
On Monday, the Israeli government filed an affidavit in the High Court responding to a petition filed against an order for ministries to halt all contact with the Israeli newspaper. The initial government order to sever ties with Haaretz was issued in November 2024.
The affidavit charges that the newspaper “has expressed support for the enemy in time of war.”
It also claims that “it harms the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces and the war effort, calls for refusal [to serve in the army], accuses the IDF of genocide, defames the state, defames the Zionist enterprise as a whole, calls for the imposition of international sanctions against the state and its elected officials, supports the International Criminal Court [ICC] in The Hague, and damages the image and standing of the State of Israel in the world.”
“The Haaretz newspaper and the articles it published in it, including in English, are used by many of those who hate Israel and antisemites on a daily basis.”
While the newspaper has been slightly critical of Israel’s genocidal military policy and decimation of the Gaza Strip, it has consistently referred to Tel Aviv’s adversaries as “terrorists.”
Haaretz has accused Tel Aviv of trying to silence critical and independent journalism.
Israel has also taken similar action in an effort to shutter Israeli Army Radio, citing its harm to “the war effort and morale.”
