Trump says US aid payments to Israel will end after this year
President Trump said he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed that US military aid payments to Israel, about $4 billion a year, will stop after the end of this year, while American weapons sales to Israel continue, Reuters reports. The current US-Israel agreement provides $3.8 billion a year through September 2028. Israeli opposition figure Gadi Eisenkot criticized the move. Read at Reuters →
Judas Maccabeus's treaty with Rome
What happened then
In about 161 BC Judas Maccabeus, leader of the Jewish revolt against the Seleucid kingdom, sent the envoys Eupolemus and Jason to Rome. According to 1 Maccabees 8, the Senate agreed to a treaty of friendship and alliance with the Jews.
What caused it
Judea was fighting for its religious and political freedom against the Seleucid kings, and Rome, the rising power of the Mediterranean, was eager to weaken the Seleucids. Each side saw something to gain from a distant friend.
How it was resolved
The treaty brought no Roman legions. Judas was killed at the Battle of Elasa in 160 BC, and the Jews won independence through their own long struggle, with Simon establishing the independent Hasmonean state in about 142–141 BC.
How it turned out
The friendship with Rome lasted, but its character changed. When a civil war broke out between rival Hasmonean heirs, Pompey intervened and took Jerusalem in 63 BC, and Judea became a Roman client state. The story is often read as a reminder that alliances with great powers shift as those powers' interests change.
What the philosophers say
In his Farewell Address, Washington urged Americans to “steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world,” while adding that existing engagements should be “observed in their genuine sense” and that the nation could “safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies.” He also held that “honesty is always the best policy” between nations. Washington didn't counsel abandoning friends; he counseled clear-eyed, honest dealings in which each nation pursues its own interest. Readers can weigh how his advice applies to a long-standing friendship like this one.
Sources: Washington's Farewell Address, 1796 (Avalon Project, Yale Law School)
Sources: 1 Maccabees 8 (Knox translation, New Advent) · Wikipedia: Battle of Elasa · Wikipedia: Siege of Jerusalem (63 BC)
Further reading: Rome and Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilizations by Martin Goodman