Relations between the United States and Israel have increasingly come to the forefront of global attention with the Iran War. Numerous claims have appeared in the press regarding disagreements within the Trump administration concerning relations with Israel. A new bill involving Israeli-American cooperation is on the agenda in the United States Congress… The information and assessments contained in the article published by the Institut Schiller on this subject offer important insights for understanding the trajectory of U.S.-Israel relations. We find it worthwhile to share with our valued readers the English version of this important article, originally published in French.
Towards a Fusion of the American and Israeli Military-Industrial and Intelligence Complexes?
There is little time left to influence the position of the United States Congress, which must vote on the 2027 defense budget. Under the title “National Defense Authorization Act” (NDAA), the vote would de facto establish an “Israeli-American partnership” materializing, in practice, through the fusion of the American military-industrial complex with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
It would strip the United States of any sovereignty, already seriously eroded, over its own actions in Southwest Asia and – worse still – would directly involve them, under international law, in the war crimes and genocide perpetrated over the past three years by Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israeli government in Gaza and throughout the occupied territories.
The mobilization against this text is of paramount importance and is gaining momentum in the United States, notably through the action of Republican Congressman Thomas Massie.
While American popular support for Israel collapses as overwhelming evidence of the genocide in Gaza accumulates and the barbaric acts of Israeli settlers against Palestinians are thoroughly documented – for anyone who wants to know what is happening – Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie (R.) has stepped up to warn about the risk that a vote with particularly significant implications might be adopted incognito by Congress.
Indeed, Congress is preparing to adopt an “Israeli-American partnership” embedded within the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) – notably Section 219 in the version to be voted on by the House of Representatives and Section 1217 in the Senate version – which would have the practical consequence of merging the American and Israeli military-industrial and intelligence complexes.
On July 10, Thomas Massie informed his 1.7 million followers on X that the House Rules Committee would meet on Monday evening, July 13, “and decide whether our amendment to remove Section 219 (merging U.S. military technologies and supply chains with those of Israel) from the NDAA would receive a vote. If they do not allow our amendment to be voted on, I will vote against their rule.”
Shortly after, he published an update to his message, indicating that “the Rules Committee has NOT scheduled the NDAA for next week’s agenda.” To avoid slowing the mobilization aimed at pushing Congress to block this measure, Massie added that he would not delete this tweet, “because at some point, House leadership will bring the NDAA to the floor for a vote, and will likely move it through the Rules Committee. We just don’t know when.”
The day before, on July 9, independent presidential candidate Diane Sare had published a campaign flyer, titled “No Merger with Israel or Any Other Nation,” urging American citizens to demand that their congressional representatives remove the relevant sections from the NDAA, namely Section 219 in the House version and Section 1217 in the Senate version. “It is a betrayal” to propose merging all aspects of the U.S. Department of Defense with the State of Israel, Diane Sare warned. “Engaging in such cooperation with ANY foreign country would constitute a threat to U.S. national security and the security of the American people… But this is not just any country; this is Israel: a state currently led by war criminals committing genocide and ethnic cleansing against Palestine and Lebanon… Call your elected officials today and every day until their office confirms they will not vote for the NDAA if it includes a provision to merge our armed forces with those of Israel or any other nation.”
The latest sign that Congress is feeling pressure from constituents on this issue is the July 9 report by Reuters news agency, according to which six Democratic senators published a joint letter addressed to their “Dear Colleagues” urging them to block passage of the NDAA military spending bill until the Senate debates the section on the merger with Israel. “As Democratic senators, we should not lend our votes to force President Donald Trump to strengthen U.S. ties with Netanyahu’s extremist government,” Reuters reported, citing the letter initiated by Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen. Jeff Merkley (Oregon), Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts), as well as Peter Welch and Bernie Sanders (Vermont) were also said to have signed this letter.
The Canary in the Coal Mine
The adoption of such a measure would not only resemble an earthquake whose consequences, perfectly foreseeable, would guarantee a war of all against all; it would come at a time when Israel has just inflicted an unprecedented humiliation on Congress by detaining for 90 minutes Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna of California while he was visiting the West Bank.
“We were in a village that Israeli settlers had destroyed; they had destroyed the school, they had destroyed that village, and we were just looking at the damage. And these thugs came with machine guns — M4s, American-made machine guns — and they held us. They blocked the road. Then they called the Israeli army (IDF), and they sided with them, not with the Americans,” Congressman Ro Khanna told Reuters Thursday evening, according to an article published today in the Times of Israel.
Ro Khanna, the Democratic congressman from California, himself told the New York Times how the settlers mocked and insulted him and his team. Two Israel Defense Forces (IDF) vehicles stopped, but instead of ordering the settlers to disperse, the soldiers chatted with them, and when the settlers left, they moved a car to continue blocking the passage. Finally, after calls to the U.S. Embassy, Israeli police intervened to end this detention.
Ro Khanna said: “I felt powerless in this situation… Imagine what Palestinians under occupation feel every day, if they can make a U.S. congressman feel powerless for 90 minutes.”
Many media outlets are now reporting on the scandalous actions of the settlers and the IDF, and the congressman has begun posting videos and photos of his visit to the West Bank. Interviews conducted in the various cities he visited will be included. He told reporters that he had already visited Israel several times, but since he had never spoken to Palestinians, he decided to go to the West Bank himself. As he confided to the New York Times, he has now seen with his own eyes “the apartheid-like conditions, the inequality” suffered by Palestinians. “No American would support this,” he said, “if they knew the details of what is happening here.”
Khanna also said he was “seriously considering” running for President of the United States, especially after this trip. He promised that regardless of whether he runs, he would speak about what he saw everywhere in the United States. The Democratic Party establishment “has no idea of the scale of the moral challenge that Palestine, Gaza, and Israel now represent,” he added.
“If you are not ready to defend the human rights of Palestinians, if you are not ready to denounce the genocide in Gaza and the apartheid in the West Bank, then you are morally compromised,” and you will not defend justice for Americans either. The Times of Israel noted in its article that in May, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found that Israel’s favorability rating among Democrats was only 22% (compared to 59% in 2018), and reminded its readers that former Barack Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel had also warned this week in Tel Aviv that “Israeli policies toward Palestinians were eroding support for the U.S.-Israeli alliance.”
None of the aforementioned publications, however, mention the growing mobilization against the defense budget proposal, even though this incident should, par excellence, be a signal alerting to the need to block such legislation.
Maintaining Pressure at All Costs
In such a context, one better understands the necessity of pushing this text through, whatever the cost. Thus, although probably written on July 9 or 10, the Jerusalem Post’s “Editorial Note” titled “The U.S.-Israel alliance… must become a partnership” still appears on the front page of the newspaper’s website. It puts forward the argument that the United States “derives” great benefits from the “MOP,” that is, the Memorandum of Partnership. What are they? The section titled “What America gains” answers:
The “greatest” advantage would be that American troops would not have to defend Israel, as is the case in Europe. An argument that raises a simple question: since Israel is currently waging offensive, aggressive, and unprovoked wars, what are all those American naval assets, Marines, and sailors doing there?
Second argument: President Trump could draw inspiration from the “Iron Dome,” the Israeli defense system, for his own space warfare project called “Golden Dome.” The only problem is that the “Iron Dome” failed to defend Israel against Yemeni, Iranian, and some Hezbollah attacks, all provoked by Israeli invasions.
Next: artificial intelligence. “AI-assisted warfare is a sensitive subject. Israel’s use on the battlefield of digital decision-support and command systems raises difficult legal and moral questions, and that’s normal. But that is precisely why this experience matters to the Pentagon…” [sic!]
Finally, cyberwarfare: According to the Washington Post, Israeli and American investigators had collaborated to uncover facts about Iran’s nuclear program and to attack it.
This would concern Iran’s civilian nuclear program, which that country has a right to under its national sovereignty, and which Washington and Tel Aviv swear should never be permitted. The religious edict, or fatwa, that Ali Khamenei had established against nuclear weapons is not mentioned there, nor is Israel’s possession of nuclear weapons.
Worse, the real argument, openly admitted, is the same as that put forward by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz regarding the war against Russia: war is good for creating jobs in America…
The original version of the article: https://www.institutschiller.org/Vers-une-fusion-des-complexes-militaro-industriels-et-de-renseignement