Trump Netanyahu
Donald Trump said the U.S. will stop sending $4 billion in funding to Israel after this year. Getty Images

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the U.S. will stop sending about $4 billion in funding per year to Israel after the end of 2026.

Speaking to Fox News, Trump said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approached him with the idea and they have been discussing it for years.

He went on to say that Israel doesn't need the aid and the matter has become a talking point for some Democrats seeking to criticize Republicans.

"We've ⁠already agreed that by the end of this year we won't be paying Israel. Now we'll ​help Israel if they need it," Trump said. He noted that Washington will sell arms to the country if they want to buy it.

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Netanyahu, on his end, had said in June that he was seeking to wean off military support within a decade. "I want to draw down to zero the American financial support, the financial component of the military cooperation that we have," he told CBS News back then. The latest agreement determined that the U.S. would provide $38 billion in military aid to the country between 2018 and 2028. Those funds are used to buy equipment from U.S. companies.

Still, the two countries are coordinating strategy when it comes to the war in Iran. The latest development involves a disagreement on the next step, however.

Citing sources familiar with the matter, Axios detailed that Netanyahu wants to jointly strike Iran after the U.S. midterms on Tuesday, while Trump prefers to give more time for negotiations to play out.

But time could bring different challenges to Netanyahu's plans. The likelihood that the leaders of the Zionist opposition bloc and the Arab parties will form a coalition government which would oust him is growing.

Parties that make up Netanyahu's ruling bloc won 53 seats, while the so-called "Zionist opposition" bloc won 48. The Arab parties, Ra'am and the Joint List, won a total of 19 seats, which means they could be the kingmakers in forming a government with either coalition.

The Telegraph reported on Saturday that the Arab parties are expected to support the opposition bloc, led by former Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, in their bid to form a government.

"The Joint List will recommend Eisenkot to become the candidate for prime minister," Jafar Farah, the director of the Arab-Israeli advocacy group The Mossawa Center, told the British outlet.

For his part, Eisenkot said in September that Ra'am leader Mansour Abbas would not form part of a potential future Eisenkot-led administration because of Abbas' disagreement with certain key principles that, according to Eisenkot, all future coalition partners of his would have to uphold.

Those principles include the recognition of Hamas as a terrorist organization, the acknowledgement that Israel is a Jewish and democratic state and support for the declaration of independence that established the Israeli state in 1948.