In an interview on 60 Minutes, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his position that Israel must phase out American military support. This is a correct goal in the long term, but with two caveats.
First, after the war with Iran, and certainly if the United States chooses in the future to reduce its presence in the Middle East or reach a new agreement with Tehran, there is logic in preserving US military assistance for another decade. This is not only because of its contribution to the IDF’s budget, but also because it has become a symbol of America’s commitment to Israel’s security. A sharp termination could be interpreted in the region as a weakening of that commitment.
Secondly, Israel must ensure an increase and deepening of its contribution to American interests in the future, to maintain strategic relations with the US. Therefore, alongside weaning off military aid, a new success story must be created.
During our visit to Washington last week, we presented our proposal for such a success story: a technological alliance between Israel and the US that will define a new era in their relations. A technological alliance will not only address the growing crisis in Israel's position within both parties in the US, but will also be attractive to the central issue currently preoccupying the US president – the strategic competition with China, at the heart of which lies technological competition.
In this spirit, we have launched an initiative in Washington, developed together with over 50 senior figures from Israel and the US, to establish a technological alliance between the two countries – one that will address Israel’s challenges and upgrade its relationship with its most important partner.
For decades, the alliance between the two countries rested on the principle that the US provides Israel with economic and security assistance in order to strengthen it against the range of threats in its environment and enable it to take risks in diplomatic processes.
In recent decades, this model has narrowed down, almost entirely, to $3.3 billion in annual security assistance, guaranteeing Israel’s Qualitative Military Edge (QME) and American protection at the United Nations Security Council. It was the right model for a period in which Israel was a country surrounded by enemies, struggling to bear the economic and security burden on its own.
But the Israel of 2026 is not the Israel of the 1970s or the 1990s. Israel today is a strong country, a regional power with military, economic, and technological strength. Beyond that, it holds strategic assets that can help the US in what appears to be the most important struggle of the 21st century: technological competition with China.
The war against Iran sharply illustrated Israel’s security value to the US. Israel provided intelligence and operational and technological capabilities that made it a strategic partner fighting alongside the strongest power in the world, while demonstrating impressive performance in achieving the war’s objectives.
Israeli and American forces took equal part in both attack and defense, and Israel’s contribution to saving US soldiers equaled the American contribution to defending the residents of Israel. We did not meet a single US official who failed to express appreciation for Israel’s contribution in the war, or who did not repeat the Pentagon’s description of Israel as “a model ally.”
The American security establishment and the Trump administration saw the direct contribution to a supreme US security interest when F-35 and F-15 aircraft, purchased with assistance funds, fought impressively – wing-to-wing with the US Air Force, Navy, and Marines. But beyond the security strategy, it is important to communicate the understanding that, according to our estimates at MIND Israel, the direct contribution of U. security assistance to the American economy is at least four times greater than the amount of the assistance itself.
In practice, even under the current model, this is much less “aid to Israel” than an American investment in a shared security-technological ecosystem.
Yet outside the security establishment and President Donald Trump’s orbit, a bipartisan anti-Israel front is developing in the US, portraying Israel as having dragged the president into a regional confrontation in order to advance its own ambitions through military force.
Even American officials who understand that this claim is entirely baseless acknowledge that it is a highly effective campaign, especially among the youth in both parties.
This is precisely why Israel must offer the US a new narrative: No longer a relationship based mainly on security interests or historical commitment but a partnership that generates direct strategic value for the core interests of both countries.
Israel should advance a new model of relations – US-Israel 2.0. Not aid but partnership; not only security but also technology; not only tanks and aircraft but also artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, semiconductors, energy, critical materials, and bioconvergence.
This week in Washington we launched a joint initiative with the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP), the research institute founded by the late Henry Kissinger and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. The initiative calls for building a gradual, two-track process: a phased reduction in direct assistance to Israel, alongside the construction of a broad technological partnership.
On the security side, this means joint investment in future defense technologies and Israeli integration into the Golden Dome program for the defense of the United States.
On the civilian side, it means allocating resources on an equal basis to a joint fund of $1 billion per year for a decade, focused on developing the most strategic technologies of the future. This is not an expense – it is an investment. It will attract enormous private capital, strengthen the technological edge of both countries, and generate significant strategic and economic returns, far beyond what security assistance alone currently produces.
The central projects raised in the discussions held by the Israeli and American teams include establishing an advanced semiconductor fabrication facility of a kind currently found only in Taiwan; accelerating both countries’ cyber capabilities through AI; a joint effort to produce and process critical materials used by the technology sector and controlled primarily by China; and developing leadership in quantum computing and fusion technologies for energy production. These capabilities would ensure strategic independence for both countries and provide significant leverage in the international arena.
American Jewry also has a central role to play in such a move. Beyond investing in a project that will benefit both countries, this is about creating a new shared vision for the Jews of Israel and the US – a vision of Tikkun Olam through Israeli innovation and technology.
No longer a discourse focused only on threats and wars, but also on creation, science, and building a shared future. Therefore, our initiative creates a foundation for technological cooperation in the region, addressing the challenges that threaten all citizens of the Middle East: energy, water, and food security, along with Israel's proven contribution in defending its regional partners from security threats during wartime.
In fact, the technological alliance will strengthen all the pillars on which the Israel-US relationship is built. It will strengthen the shared interests base, the value base threatened by trends of polarization within both societies, and above all, the friendship between peoples, by promoting and facilitating business, technological, academic, and other forms of cooperation between the people of Israel and the American people in general, and the Jewish Diaspora in particular.