Former Democratic Senator Mike Gravel says that Washington�s plan to increase annual military aid to Israel is a bribe to the Zionist regime over a possible nuclear deal with Iran.

US and Israeli officials are discussing a new 10-year deal that could be worth up to $45 billion as the current $3 billion annual military aid package will expire in 2017.

�The fact that there is a discussion now in the media over the potential of the United States increasing the amount of military aid to Israel is really nothing more than a bribe essentially to the Israeli community, but not particularly them because Netanyahu is still making mischief with his comments about the nuclear deal with Iran, what it is, it�s a buy-off of the American Jewish community; it�s appalling,� Gravel told Press TV on Saturday.

�There is no reason why Israel has to be armed to the teeth, and, of course, it�s not being threatened by Iran, it�s not being threatened by any other country that I know of in the Middle East,� he opined.

He went on to say that �the United States is made a fool of by the leadership of Israel in opposing what is a very logical situation arriving at the removing sanctions for Iran.�

�Iran is a natural ally of the United States and all of this hoopla by Netanyahu is to increase the amount that we bribe to the Jewish community with all of these defense weapons,� explained Gravel, a candidate in the 2008 US presidential election.

�Most of these money have to be spent with the American corporations, they are what we call the military-industrial complex, but that complex extends into Israel, because we have a lot of manufacturing that�s done for weaponry within� Israel.

�This is more the same, and it�s a sad chapter in the American history that our foreign policy is the Middle East is dictated by Israel, and not by the primary interest of the United States of America,� he concluded.

Former US president George W. Bush�s administration signed an agreement with Israel in 2007, providing it with $30 billion in military assistance over 10 years.

Most of that money must be spent on American military products.

The money is in addition to the nearly $500 million in annual US funding for Israel�s missile system programs in recent years.

By Press TV