An overwhelming majority of US senators have signed a letter to President Obama asking that a new military aide pact worth more – “substantially enhanced” — than the current $3 billion annually be concluded quickly. The letter, which was initiated by Sen. Lindsay Graham (R- South Carolina) and Sen. Chris Coons (D- Delaware), carried the signatures of 51 of 54 Republicans and 32 of 44 Democrats. The letter read, in part, “In light of Israel’s dramatically rising defense challenges, we stand ready to support a substantially enhanced new long-term agreement to help provide Israel the resources it requires to defend itself and preserve its qualitative military edge.” The Netanyahu government is known to want a package that could run more than $4.5 billion each year for the next ten years while the White House has indicated that a more modest increase would be more realistic, around $3.7 billion. Netanyahu toyed with delaying the negotiations until the next president takes office but eventually opened talks with the Obama administration. There is no guarantee an understanding will be reached by the end of the president’s term or that his successor will be any more predisposed to agreeing to the aid package which will be the largest ever provided by the United States.
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