Twelve Senators Call For US-Israel Military Integration To Be Removed From NDAA

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com

A group of 12 senators has written to congressional leadership urging the removal of provisions from the House and Senate versions of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would mandate increased US-Israeli military and intelligence cooperation.

The idea of the amendments is to further integrate the US and Israeli militaries and make the special relationship harder to unwind, a reaction to the increasing criticism of Israel among Americans.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been pushing for the integration, which he has referred to as “my plan,” and says it will come with a phase-out of US financial military aid to Israel over time, but defense analysts have warned the aid will just be buried in the Pentagon budget and less visible to the public.

While both the House and the Senate have included the integration plan in their draft NDAAs, the two chambers have yet to go to conference to negotiate the final bill, where the amendments could potentially be stripped out.

The letter, led by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and signed by nine other Democrats and one Independent (Sen. Bernie Sanders), urges congressional leaders to “exclude three provisions from the final bill that would further entrench concerning aspects of the US-Israel defense and intelligence relationship at a time when the Israeli government’s actions are increasingly undermining US interests and values.”

The senators said that the “provisions would constrain the Administration’s ability to independently determine how best to protect US national security and would lock in long-term commitments despite our serious concerns with the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza, the West Bank, and other parts of the region.”

The letter calls for the removal of Section 219 from the House bill and Section 1217 from the Senate one, which both “mandate the creation of a ‘United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative’ to expand and accelerate the US-Israel defense relationship, including technology sharing, co-production of weapons systems, and bilateral research and development.”

They said that the provisions would “threaten US national security interests by handing Israel leverage over American weapons systems and military technology.“

The letter also calls for the removal of Section 618 of the Senate’s Intelligence Authorization Act, which would mandate increased intelligence sharing with Israel. 

“The provision would tie the President’s hands from limiting intelligence sharing with Israel, even when doing so may be necessary to protect US national security. That would be irresponsible and especially troubling given public reports that the Defense Intelligence Agency recently raised the counterintelligence threat from Israel to its highest level,” the letter reads.