By Cameron Pettiford
The United States and Israel are close allies, so many would think that they have a mutually beneficial relationship. This is not the case.
The United States should completely stop or at least heavily reduce foreign aid to Israel since we have already sent them an obscene amount of money. America is not in a good enough financial spot to be sending more money. Additionally, the war that the U.S is supporting is completely unethical, with Israel bombing thousands of innocent civilians as well as hospitals and schools.
In 2016, the U.S signed a deal with Israel called the U.S.-Israel MOU (Memorandum of Understanding), which sent $38 billion to Israel over 10 years to be used only for strengthening their military and nothing else.
Additionally, the U.S often sends Israel large sums of money labeled as “emergency funding.” On Oct. 7, 2023, the U.S sent Israel $14 billion due to an attack by the terrorist organization Hamas.
During this attack, around 1,100 deaths were reported in Israel. In the following three months, there were 14,000 reported deaths in Gaza.
The reason for the attack was to attempt to free Palestinian prisoners who were being held captive in Israel.
Israel already has one of the strongest military forces in the world, often called the IDF. The Israeli military is ranked 15th out of 145 nations, according to the Global Firepower Index, an independent non-governmental ranking.
With such an already strong military, it makes no financial sense for us to be sending billions of dollars of taxpayer money to them instead of using that money to help American citizens, the people who have to pay the taxes.
While the U.S uses taxpayer dollars to fund the IDF, many American people do not support the actions of Israel.
As of late 2025, about 61% of Americans believe that Israel is playing a negative role in Gaza and is unnecessarily continuing the war, causing completely avoidable deaths. This was a poll taken by an independent, nonpartisan organization based in Chicago.
In the same poll, they concluded that currently, people in the U.S are split pretty evenly on the subject, with about 53% of Americans saying we should end support soon and 47% saying to continue it.
One of the key supporting states for Israel in the U.S is Indiana, followed by Florida, New York, and Texas.
As of right now, 38 states in the US have an Anti-BDS ( Boycott Divestment and Sanctions) law, which prevents companies from boycotting or not interacting with Israeli businesses or Israeli-produced products. Like many people, I believe this violates our First Amendment rights.
Secondly, the US is in a bad enough financial spot as it is, with inflation rates being north of 6% as of late. With that being said, instead of using our taxpayer dollars to fund another country, we should be using that money to help improve the lives of American citizens, not funding a war we have almost nothing to gain from.
Right now, the federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, meaning that if you worked 40 hours per week all month, you would make around $1,160. The median cost for a 1-bedroom apartment across the country is $1,713 per month.
The United States, as of writing this, is $38 trillion in debt, the highest in the world by more than $15 trillion, while Israel is $564 billion in debt, sitting comfortably around the 60-70th spot out of the 200 documented countries.
Some people might claim that we need to continue the support due to Israel’s location in the Middle East and the United States’ history with the other countries there. While it is true that the U.S. does not have a strong relationship with many countries in the Middle East, it would make much more sense to build a relationship with a country that has more to offer to us.
Israel is currently ranked 73rd in the world based on oil production, which is the main resource the U.S aims to obtain in that part of the world.
Even if you discard everything I’ve said up to this point, and you believe that we as a country should be tossing around our money to other nations instead of using it to directly benefit our citizens’ lives, that money should go to a country that has more to offer to us, whether it be in oil production, military aid, or other goods/ services. It makes no sense to ally ourselves with a country that drags us into wars from which we have nothing to gain.
Lastly, from an ethical standpoint, the U.S should not be supporting the genocide of innocent civilians that Israel is causing in Palestine.
According to PBS.org, Israel has caused the deaths of over 70,000 people in Palestine, with about 70% of those deaths being innocent civilians. At the same time, there have been about 2,000 total Israeli deaths, with less than half being civilians. Israel is clearly winning, suffering little to no loss, and does not have a valid reason to continue to kill innocents who are doing nothing wrong.
The leaders of Israel are bombing schools, hospitals, and areas that have no military or armed forces in them at all. It is evident that their goal is no longer to “ defend themselves,” but rather to devastate Palestine as much as possible and leave their home as a nuclear wasteland. The United States should not be supporting the unchecked, unbalanced, genocidal eradication of a nation that Israel is causing right now.
This article is the opinion of sophomore Cameron Pettiford. His opinion does not necessarily reflect the view of the Eagle’s Eye newspaper or of Delta High School.
