The timing is interesting, but I can't tell if it is purely for political reasons. IL just had its elections and this decision there was officially met with mixed reactions. In the grand scheme of things ( once you remove the emotion from it and think strategically ), IL does want to remove itself from being influenced by US in terms of what it can do and carrot/stick approach will remove this factor from the electorate's view.

Naturally, it will not remove anything else US does to support IL, but that is a separate and long thread.

From the Washington Sun [0]

> “The left uses the $4 billion payment — that everybody knows about, it’s no secret — as a signal of unfairness,” Trump said Tuesday on Fox. “And we can’t allow that to happen. I don’t like that, because it’s too easy. It’s almost too easy a target. And Bibi and I have been talking, and we’ve agreed. He was very understanding of it.”

And that's it. Entirely a political circus stunt.

But isn't it a bit late coming on November 3?

Stunts usually start a lot earlier.

It’s All but Settled: The Reagan Campaign Delayed the Release of the Iranian Hostages [1]

And taught Iran how to mess with American elections. So smart.

[0] https://www.washingtonsun.com/whitehouse/trump-says-us-will-...

From AP

[1] https://newrepublic.com/article/172324/its-settled-reagan-ca...

For those who dislike reading articles, the article's title is misleading. The $4 billion in annual aid (material and monetary) is ending (or he's declared it'll end), but the US will still sell weapons to Israel. This is moving the cost to Israel rather than having the US subsidize their military.