AIPAC Thanks Congress For Including $3.7B Aid To Israel In Spending Bill

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The American Israel Public Affairs Committee thanked Congress for including defense assistance for Israel in its omnibus spending bill.
The bill includes $3.1 billion in defense assistance, $600 million in missile defense cooperation programs and $42 million for joint U.S.-Israel ventures in tracking and destroying tunnels, a method of terrorizing Israel that Hamas has introduced in recent years.
“AIPAC applauds Congress for including key provisions to help Israel address critical security challenges,” the statement said.
All of the funding was expected and has been on track since the Obama administration.
The bill also legislates reducing aid to the Palestinian Authority commensurate to the aid it gives to the families of terrorists killed or jailed by Israel. The State Department has in recent years practiced making such deductions.
President Donald Trump on Friday signed the $1.17 trillion bill, which keeps the government running through September. Missing from the bill was funding for Trump’s proposed border wall with Mexico, which Democrats vigorously oppose.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
- 3
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 4
Opinion What Jewish university presidents say: Trump is exploiting campus antisemitism, not fighting it
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward An elite Jewish society at Yale fractures over its director’s embrace of Itamar Ben-Gvir
-
Fast Forward After outcry, Cornell president cancels pro-Palestinian performer chosen for campus concert
-
Yiddish טשיקאַוועסן: הינטל וואָס איז פֿאַרשוווּנדן דעם 7טן אָקט׳ פֿאַראייניקט מיט זײַן ישׂראלישער משפּחהTidbits: Dog that disappeared on Oct. 7 is back with its Israeli family
אַ צה״ל־סאָלדאַט האָט געפֿונען דאָס הינטל, בילי, אין ראַפֿאַך, דרום־עזה, בערך נײַן מײַל פֿונעם קיבוץ.
-
Opinion As Trump lashes out at Zelenskyy, it’s clear: Ukraine is now to the far-right what Israel is to the left
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.