Beyond Aid: How Defense Integration Could Entrench US Support for Israel
May 22, 2026
10:00 am - 11:00 am EDT
The current Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the United States and Israel is set to expire at the end of 2028. Discussions are already underway about what the security assistance relationship between the two countries should look like going forward. Prominent Israel officials – including Prime Minister Netanyahu – support the phasing out of US military aid, calling it a critical step towards Israel’s independence. But there is more than meets the eye. Israeli policy makers wish to pivot from security assistance towards defense integration, a transformation that could deepen the US-Israeli strategic relationship while insulating it from political oversight.
How would this reorientation alter the US-Israel strategic relationship? Are there feasible alternatives to continuing the security assistance program as it is now structured, phasing it out over time as the Israelis have publicly proposed, or shifting it toward defense integration under the auspices of the two countries’ defense establishments? Will shifting US financial support for Israel from the category of “aid” to that of “mutual readiness” stymie the growing call for ending unconditional US support for Israel?
To discuss these questions and more, join a Quincy Institute conversation featuring Steven Simon, senior research fellow in the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute, Ben Freeman, director of the Democratizing Foreign Policy program at the Quincy Institute, and Josh Paul, human rights activist and former State Department official who resigned over the Biden administration’s Gaza policy and continued military support for Israel. Annelle Sheline, research fellow in the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute who also resigned from the State Department over Gaza during the Biden administration, will moderate.
The conversation will take place on Friday, May 22nd from 10:00 – 11:00 AM ET.