Cairo (Egypt): Israel’s wars in Gaza, Lebanon and against Iran could not have continued without the United States. Since October 2023, Washington has provided Tel Aviv more than $21 billion in military aid, weapons and support, according to twin reports from the Costs of War Project at Brown University.
The reports make clear that without this financial and logistical backing, Israel could not have maintained its war in Gaza, launched attacks on Iran or carried out repeated strikes in Yemen.
Experts say US support for Israel at all levels is indispensable to the prosecution of the latter’s war both in Gaza and across the region.
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Israel’s strikes in Gaza since October 2023 alone has killed at least 67,160 people and wounded 169,679. Thousands remain trapped under rubble, while airstrikes have killed dozens in Yemen and over 1,000 people in Iran.
Israel Needs US Funding To Wage War
The conflict began two years ago, when a Hamas-led attack killed 1,139 Israelis and captured over 200. Israel responded with devastating force. Gaza was bombarded. The West Bank and Jerusalem saw frequent raids. Lebanon suffered over 4,000 casualties, and entire villages were destroyed.
Israeli forces occupied Lebanese and Syrian territory, bombed Iran’s Damascus consulate and engaged in a 12-day war with Tehran. Attacks on Yemen’s Houthis also followed.
Researchers emphasise that these campaigns would have been impossible without American support.
“Given the scale of present and future spending, it is clear the (Israeli army) could not have done the damage they have done in Gaza or escalated their military activities throughout the region without US financing, weapons and political support,” reads the report US Military Aid and Arms Transfers to Israel, October 2023-September 2025 by William D Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.
The report was co-released with the Costs of War Project. The Quincy Institute advocates moving US foreign policy away from endless wars toward diplomacy and restraint.
A companion report by Linda J Bilmes of Harvard Kennedy School estimates that between October 7, 2023, and now, the United States has spent between $31.35 billion and $33.77 billion in military aid to Israel and operations in the region.
“Israel needs US arms in order to do what it is doing. It has dropped an excessive amount of ordinance on Gaza and elsewhere. It produces certain weapons and technology, but it does not manufacture the bombs, so without the United States, it could not drop those bombs,” it said.
Bipartisan Backing
US support for Israel has long been unwavering. Israel is the largest annual and cumulative recipient of US foreign aid, receiving around $3.3 billion yearly and more than $150 billion up to 2022.
Hartung highlights that both the Biden and Trump administrations committed tens of billions in arms sales agreements. Many payments will continue for years.
“(This) bipartisan support … allowed a serial violator of international law for pretty much its entire existence with the support of the democratic West without being questioned in a significant way in the political and social mainstream,” the researchers explained.
However, American public opinion has begun to shift. As scholars increasingly describe Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide, support has waned. A recent Washington Post poll found that four in ten US Jews believe Israel is committing genocide, while over 60 percent say Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza.
Political Consequences
Analysts suggest these revelations may affect future US politics.
“Some former Biden administration officials may hope that they will not have to deal with this, but they are living in a fantasy world,” they said.
The billions spent to support Israel have drawn criticism from Americans frustrated about domestic priorities.
“Budgets are about priorities, but even though Americans have the thinnest social safety net of any modern country, somehow we always seem to find billions upon billions of dollars to assist Israel in its various wars,” they said.
“Anyone who has ever tried to do a household budget can see how absurd it is, but it is also reflective of the broader corruption of American politics. It is not just Israeli interests, it is also the US industrial complex, who are making money hand over fist, because so much of this aid and assistance is not just arms sales but granting of assistance that is going to a lot of US companies,” they said.