Israeli lawmakers urged the government to reopen talks with the United States on a defense aid deal signed in 2016 in the hope that US President Donald Trump might ease a requirement that American aid money be spent on US equipment. One component of the Obama administration deal was to phase out a special arrangement that had allowed Israel to use 26.3 percent of the US aid on its own defense industry instead of on US-made weapons, requiring the aid to be spent on US equipment by 2026. Israeli lawmakers suggested that this requirement could be renegotiated now that Obama has been succeeded by Trump. More >