Image: Wikimedia Commons / Israeli Government Press Office. Benjamin Netanyahu official portrait.- Netanyahu told CBS that he wants to draw the U.S. financial component of military cooperation with Israel down to zero.
- He gave a broad timetable of starting now and moving over the next decade, while CNBC-linked reporting says he also wants the wind-down to begin in the final two years of Trump’s term.
- The viral “like welfare” line is spreading on social platforms, but the stronger confirmed record is the aid-to-partnership phaseout argument.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s push to end direct U.S. military aid to Israel is no longer just a think-tank argument or an American campaign talking point. The Israeli prime minister has now said it repeatedly in public: Israel should move away from annual U.S. aid and toward a different kind of security partnership.
The viral version circulating today says Netanyahu declared U.S. aid to Israel is “like welfare.” That wording is appearing in social clips and aggregation posts. The safer published claim is slightly narrower: Netanyahu has clearly said he wants to wind down American financial support to zero, but the best public transcripts reviewed by NoDechev do not all carry the exact “like welfare” phrase.
What Netanyahu said on CBS
In a May 10, 2026, CBS 60 Minutes interview, Major Garrett asked Netanyahu whether Israel should reset the financial relationship with Washington. Netanyahu said yes and framed the issue around the annual military assistance package.
His confirmed line was that he wants to draw down “to zero” the American financial support, meaning the financial component of U.S.-Israel military cooperation. He said Israel receives $3.8 billion a year and argued that it is time for Israel to wean itself from the remaining military support.
Asked for a timetable, Netanyahu said he wanted to start now and do it over the next ten years. That is the cleanest public record: not an immediate cutoff, but a proposed phaseout.
What he told other audiences
Jewish Insider reported on June 3 that Netanyahu told CNBC he wanted the process to begin during the final two years of the Trump administration, as the two countries work on a new memorandum of understanding. The current U.S.-Israel memorandum provides $3.8 billion in annual military aid and runs through fiscal year 2028.
In that CNBC-linked account, Netanyahu said Israel should move “from aid to partnership,” with both countries investing and sharing in defense, innovation and technology projects. He argued that such a shift would counter the idea that Israel is draining American resources.
The Jerusalem Post later reported that Netanyahu repeated the theme in remarks to reservists, saying Israel needs “armaments independence” and its own independent weapons-production network.
Image: White House / local NoDechev archive. Trump and Netanyahu at the White House.The Republican proposal
The Washington Post reported that Rep. Marlin Stutzman and Rep. Abraham Hamadeh met Netanyahu in Jerusalem on May 27 and discussed a resolution that would end free U.S. military aid to Israel and replace it with a framework where Israel funds its own purchases of American weapons.
According to that report, Netanyahu told the lawmakers that standing on Israel’s own feet was the direction he had wanted to go for a long time. The resolution is not binding, but it shows the policy idea has moved from commentary into U.S. congressional maneuvering.
What is confirmed
Confirmed: Netanyahu wants to phase out direct U.S. military aid to Israel. He has tied that idea to independence, domestic weapons production and a shift from aid to partnership. The current aid figure is about $3.8 billion per year under a 10-year memorandum that expires after fiscal year 2028.
Also confirmed: the proposal is politically useful for both sides of a changing debate. Some U.S. critics of Israel want aid cut because of Gaza and broader human-rights concerns. Some pro-Israel Republicans want aid reframed because foreign aid is increasingly unpopular among America First voters.
What is not confirmed
Not confirmed from the primary transcripts reviewed here: that every viral post quoting “like welfare” is using a complete, independently published transcript. The phrase may come from a clip or fresh interview segment, but the article should not treat it as the core fact unless the primary source is available.
NoDechev rating: confirmed phaseout, cautious on wording. Netanyahu’s goal of ending direct U.S. military aid is verified. The “like welfare” wording should be attributed as viral clip language unless a full primary transcript confirms the exact quote.
Ready social post
Netanyahu’s aid phaseout is real: he says Israel should draw direct U.S. military aid down to zero and move from aid to partnership. The viral “like welfare” wording is circulating, but the confirmed public record is the ten-year phaseout position.
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