Netanyahu eyes crypto to counter sanctions, warns US military aid will end

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday said he had requested a plan to use blockchain technology to help Israel counter possible financial sanctions, while warning that US military aid would eventually end.

Speaking to Roi Katz on Israel’s Channel 10, Netanyahu acknowledged concern about potential economic sanctions, including restrictions targeting the banking system. “Of course I’m concerned,” he said.

“You have to understand that there could be banking sanctions,” Netanyahu said, arguing that Israel needed to prepare alternative financial arrangements and pointing to currencies that could help bypass such restrictions.

Asked whether blockchain technology offered an alternative in the face of economic sanctions, Netanyahu replied: “One of them, certainly. And I’ve already asked for a plan to be prepared for it.” He did not detail how the proposed system would operate in the excerpt.

Netanyahu also warned that Israel could not assume it would continue receiving the large American military aid packages it had secured in the past. “If you think we’ll continue receiving what I secured twice, tens of billions of dollars in American assistance for the defense budget, get organized and get used to it: it won’t happen, because America has changed,” he said.

The prime minister described the eventual end of that assistance as “only a matter of time,” without giving a timetable in the excerpt.