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US House proposal seeks unprecedented military integration with Israel

WASHINGTON: A provision tucked into the US House of Representatives’ version of the National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2027 could significantly deepen military cooperation between the United States and Israel, potentially creating Washington’s closest defence partnership with any foreign country. The NDAA is the annual legislation through which Congress authorises defence spending and sets policy priorities for the Pentagon. Before becoming law, the bill must be approved by both the House of Representatives and the Senate, and then signed by the president. At the centre of the current debate is Section 224, titled the “United States–Israel Defence Technology Cooperation Initiative,” which requires the US Secretary of Defence to “designate an executive agent responsible for synchronising cooperative efforts between the United States and Israel, including bilateral defence technology research, development, testing, evaluation, integration, and industrial cooperation.” It outlines expanded collaboration in areas such as artificial intelligence, cyber warfare, autonomous systems, quantum technologies, and advanced weapons development. The provision also refers to potential “network integration” and “data fusion,” raising concerns among some analysts about the extent of operational interoperability between the two countries’ defence establishments. Critics of closer cooperation argue that the proposed framework goes significantly further than existing arrangements — shifting cooperation from traditional aid mechanisms toward integrated research and co-production. They warn that the proposed changes in procurement structures could reduce public transparency and congressional oversight. Under the current aid model, military assistance is typically approved through visible annual budgetary processes, whereas industrial and procurement partnerships operate through more complex contracting channels within the defence establishment. These concerns come amid broader and evolving debates within US politics over the scale and nature of American support for Israel. While bipartisan backing for the US–Israel security relationship has historically been strong, recent years have seen more public questioning from lawmakers across the political spectrum regarding alignment between US foreign policy interests and Israeli military actions. For example, Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, has argued publicly that unconditional support for Israeli governments may conflict with broader US strategic and humanitarian interests. “The Democratic Party has provided reflexive and unconditional support to Israeli governments, even as their actions have increasingly undermined American interests and values,” he wrote in The New York Times on Tuesday. On the Republican side, Representative Thomas Massie and former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene have both criticised the influence of pro-Israel lobbying groups — positions that some analysts and commentators suggest may have affected their standing within the party. “Why is America having to give Israel $3.8 billion?” Greene asked, noting: “We’re $37 trillion in debt; Israel is less than $400 billion in debt.” Whether Section 224 survives in its current form remains uncertain. Defence authorisation bills in Congress often undergo significant revision during negotiations between the House and Senate, and controversial or far-reaching provisions are frequently modified, narrowed, or removed before final passage. Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2026

Dawn (Pakistan)

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India voices concern on US visas but sees alignment with Rubio

India voiced concern on Sunday over a US visa crackdown, striking a rare critical note even as it expressed broad alignment with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on other fractious issues. Paying his first visit to India, Rubio said the two democracies were on the same page on all major issues, brushing aside recent unease in New Delhi over trade, China and the Iran war. India’s foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar agreed that the two countries had a “convergence of national interests in many areas” but publicly took Rubio to task over US President Donald Trump’s assault on visas. Jaishankar said he “apprised Secretary Rubio of challenges that legitimate travellers face in respect of visa issuance”. “While we cooperate to deal with illegal and irregular mobility, our expectation is that legal mobility should not be adversely impacted as a consequence,” he said, noting that visas were key for US-India tech cooperation. Trump, who has made curbing non-Western immigration a key political priority, has ramped up restrictions and fees for H-1B visas used largely by Indian tech workers, sending applications tumbling. The Trump administration followed up on Friday by saying that applicants for permanent residency, even when in the United States legally, must leave for processing, likely splitting up many families for extended periods. Trump has been influenced by nativist critics who say Indian workers take away skilled jobs from Americans who would have earned more. Last month, Trump reposted a far-right commentator who described India as a “hellhole” and inaccurately alleged that Indian immigrants lack English proficiency. Asked about racist remarks in the United States about Indians, Rubio said, “every country in the world has stupid people”. “Our nation has been enriched by people who come to our country,” said Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants. He said the immigration reforms were “not India-specific” but in response to a “migratory crisis” in the United States. Aligned on ‘all’ issues Rubio, who is paying an unusually long four-day, four-city trip to India, called the country “one of our most important strategic partners in the world”. “It begins with the fact of our shared values. We are the two largest democracies,” Rubio said. “Our nations are strategically aligned on all of the key issues that will define the new century — all the great challenges that are before us now in the modern era,” he said. Such grand statements of US-India partnership would have raised few eyebrows over the past two decades as Washington put a top priority on building ties with the billion-plus nation, seeing it as a natural counterweight to a rising China. But Trump abruptly shook up core assumptions of US foreign policy. He temporarily imposed punishing tariffs on India, held a friendly visit last week to China and has hailed India’s historic adversary Pakistan, which has positioned itself as the key mediator on the Iran war. Pakistan has also heaped praise on Trump over his diplomacy in a short conflict last year with India, which launched unprovoked strikes following the Pahalgam attack in India-occupied Kashmir. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi annoyed Trump by refusing to credit him with ending the war. Asked if India objected to Pakistan’s newfound role as a mediator, Jaishankar said it was for the United States to decide its partners, and acknowledged that differences will emerge between the two countries. “The Trump administration has been very forthright in putting forward its foreign policy outlook as America First,” Jaishankar said. “We have a view of India First,” he said.

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