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) Off 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. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); 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 pos… National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2027 proposes $1.15 trillion defence framework.
It reflects the strategic priorities that will shape the American foreign and security policy in future. The intense cooperation arrangement with Israel anchored in the section 219 of the Act, it seems, only reinforces that China is now the principal focus of long-term US strategy in Asia. Besides the usual emphasis on investment in advanced military capabilities, artificial intelligence, cyber warfare, missile defence, naval modernization and defence-industrial capacity, the Section 219 of the NDAA accelerates joint US-Israel cooperation on artificial intelligence, cyber defences and advanced weapons production through 2029, underscoring Washington's determination to preserve technological superiority.
Critics called the bill, passed with an overwhelmingly bipartisan majority and unusual haste, "sneaky and undemocratic", likening it to putting another nation's interests above America's. Former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (MTG) called it a "destruction of our sovereignty" and urged the Senate (led by VP JD Vance) to kill or remove the part on Israel (Section 2019) before it becomes law. MTG views the amendment as a quiet but major step toward integrating the two militaries' critical systems, which she argues weakens America's independence and puts US troops and taxpayers at risk for foreign conflicts.
She frames it as "treasonous give-away rather than normal ally cooperation". History tell us though that individual reservations hardly trump national security preferences as defined by the incumbent administration. This also points to the trajectory that the US policy has taken in the last decade or so – clearly discernible in the NDAA 2027 too.
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