Buried in the new defence budget, a plan to merge the US and Israeli militaries

Buried in the new defence budget, a plan to merge the US and Israeli militaries

Submitted by
Yasmine El-Sabawi
on
Thu, 07/23/2026 - 17:48

As much of the world draws a line in the sand with Israel over the genocide in Gaza, Washington nears unchecked collaboration

A relative carries the body of Palestinian child Ameera al-Masri, who was killed along with her parents and all three of her siblings in an Israeli air strike on their apartment in Gaza City, on 21 July 2026 (Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters)

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When the US House of Representatives narrowly passed a $1.5 trillion budget for the Department of War this week, the bill included a controversial provision that would permanently integrate US and Israeli military tech advancements in a way that would - as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu put it - turn Israel from a foreign aid recipient to a full-scale partner. 

Future presidents would not be able to simply withdraw from such a project. 

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is must-pass legislation, as it is needed to fund all of the Pentagon's operations in the year to come.

But with the US-Israeli war on Iran resuming with ferocity, and the deaths of 18 US soldiers so far - among more than 400 wounded - the bill is stalled in the Senate. 

While it's par for the course for lawmakers in both parties to push back against some NDAA elements, this year, one particular section has attracted attention: a framework for expanding US-Israel military ties by entrenching Israeli technology within the US defence supply chain in a way that would shield it from the annual budgeting process in Congress. 

A bipartisan amendment in the House from Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna and Republican Congressman Thomas Massie to strip the bill of Section 219 failed to pass last week, but it did garner more than 100 Democratic votes, a symbol of the growing distance liberals are putting between themselves and Israel, as voters also signal their frustration and distrust. 

Ultimately, the NDAA passed in the lower chamber with the provision intact, by a vote of 216 to 212. 

Massie, who is serving out his final months as a congressman after pro-Israel lobbying groups poured tens of millions of dollars into ousting him from the Kentucky Republican race earlier this year, called Section 219 "a betrayal of our sovereignty" in a post on X.

"The House just voted to merge the most secretive & sensitive elements of our defense & intelligence apparatus with a foreign government," the former head of the National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent, wrote on X.

Kent resigned in March, just after the start of the war on Iran on 28 February, arguing that the Trump administration was dragged into it by Israel. 

"Call your senators & representatives and tell them to not support the NDAA until the merger w/ Israel (Section 219) is removed."

Right-wing firebrand and Colorado Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert missed the vote on Wednesday, acknowledging to TMZ-DC that "many of my constituents have reached out. They don't want this provision", though she herself did not vote for the Khanna-Massie amendment. 

What does Section 219 say?

Much of what is being codified through Section 219 in the House version of the NDAA is already how the Pentagon functions vis-a-vis Israel, which is the largest recipient of US foreign military assistance to the tune of billions of dollars a year, thanks to agreements signed under the Democratic administrations of Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

But now there is profound collaboration being proposed that allows Israel to have a say in US defence and national security mechanisms. 

'What you have here is essentially a political decision to require it'

- Josh Paul, former US State Department official

The move was first introduced by Texas Republican Congressman Ronny Jackson, who was President Donald Trump's White House physician during his first term as president. Jackson's senior navy rank was demoted during Biden's presidency after a series of accusations involving sexual comments and alcohol, but last year it was restored.

"The US government has certainly engaged with other allies, particularly the UK and Australia, to expand defence cooperation and joint research, but never under a congressional mandate," Josh Paul, a former State Department official who resigned in October 2023 because of the Biden administration's handling of Israel's assault on Gaza, told Middle East Eye.

"If this was something that the US government wanted to do or US industry wanted to do, it could already be doing it. There's no law against it. What you have here is essentially a political decision to require it... [and] to identify Israeli technologies to build into US platforms. Those are both unique," he added. 

Section 219 establishes the "United States–Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative".

The project would identify jointly developed or Israeli-origin technologies with the utility for potential integration into US systems; ensure collaborative research initiatives involving government, private sector, and academic institutions in both countries protect "sensitive technology"; and ultimately aligns military efforts with the Department of War that include the Irregular Warfare Technical Support Directorate, the Defense Innovation Unit, the Missile Defense Agency, and the United States Space Command, among others. 

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is effectively being ordered to formalise US-Israeli integration relating to counter-drone systems, missile and air defence, quantum computing, Artificial Intelligence systems, and cyber and electronic warfare, in a bid to reduce Israel's dependence on US foreign aid. 

"It's just making it more palatable [so the Israelis can say] 'Hey, we're not asking. We don't need to ask for funds anymore. We're partners in this'," Ivan Ingraham, a retired US Marine Corps special operations officer, told MEE. 

"If you look at it from the perspective that Israel gets its funding and gets what it wants, and the Americans get to use Israeli incursions as a test bed for their own weaponry and also share intelligence, yeah, it is a win-win."

Within a year of the adoption of Section 219, the Secretary of War would be obligated to present Congress with a report on what activities were carried out, and how they are being assessed.

Process

It's important to note that in the Senate version of the NDAA, Section 219 is labelled as Section 1217, with some notable differences. 

It was introduced in a bipartisan manner by New York Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and North Carolina Republican Senator Ted Budd. 

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While the House version would require the Secretary of War to designate an "executive agent" who would be responsible for synchronising efforts between the US and Israel, the Senate version goes further by spelling out that the Israeli minister of defence would be consulted on an ongoing basis. 

Should the Senate's NDAA language in the provision pass later this year, lawmakers will have to come together and agree on one set of rules to guide the US-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative.  

"This ultimately does need to go back through both chambers, and that probably won't happen until November or December," Paul told MEE.

Not all Republicans in the upper chamber are on board.

"There’s nobody here who’s more of an ardent supporter of Israel’s right to exist and ability to defend themselves, but I don’t think we should integrate our military with anybody, not even the Bahamas," Ohio Republican Senator Bernie Moreno told Drop Site News on Thursday. 

But Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz waved away the criticism of Section 1217 as "weird conspiracy theories... by people who hate Jews". 

Complicity in Israeli actions

A New Policy, the lobbying group co-founded by Paul, strongly advocated for voting against the US-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative on the grounds that it would harm US national security. 

"This approach exposes sensitive US capabilities to counterintelligence risk, normalizes technologies developed in contexts of occupation and civilian harm, disadvantages US defense companies ability to compete with Israeli competitors, deepens US legal and reputational exposure without clear strategic necessity, and aims to hide continuing US military support to Israel from Congressional and public transparency," it wrote in a policy brief.  

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Ingraham, the retired military officer, told MEE that Washington would also bear the weight of further war crimes by Israel.

The International Criminal Court currently has a warrant out for the arrest of Netanyahu, as well as his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant. 

"We're aligned to each other, and we're in a partnership. If the Israelis start doing or continue with what they're doing in their own areas in the battle space, that means not only are we already complicit, but now we're absolutely tied in with it," he said. 

"The Israelis can't operate without our support - I mean, literally - this just allows them to have a much more deep-seated foothold within our infrastructure." 

US-Israel relations

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