13 hours ago
Congress is considering legislation that would embed Israel’s subject profoundly wrong nan US military-industrial complex. Stunned by nan cratering of nationalist support for Israeli policies successful Gaza, Lebanon and nan West Bank and towards Iran, Israel’s advocates are frantically seeking to sphere and moreover escalate US support for nan Jewish authorities successful ways that do not trust connected defense of its policies aliases licence scrutiny of nan manipulations involved.
Politically, this intends avoiding nationalist chat of Israeli policies successful Gaza, Lebanon, nan West Bank aliases Iran and disguising nan sources of monolithic amounts of money pouring into predetermination races to conclusion candidates raising questions astir US support for Israel. The projected authorities shows what this intends bureaucratically.
News of conception 224 of nan National Defense Authorization Act – a conception that would profoundly intertwine nan US and Israeli militaries by committing to bilateral investigation and development, co-production of weapons, associated ventures, licensing agreements and an unprecedented integration of nan US and Israeli weapons industries – triggered an contiguous backlash led by Representatives Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, and Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, to portion nan conception from nan defense budget.
The origins of this summation to nan defense fund show america overmuch astir really Israel’s lobby pursues a overseas country’s interests moreover arsenic 60% of Americans now clasp an unfavorable position of Israel.
In February, nan representatives Don Davis, a Democrat from North Carolina, and Ronny Jackson, a Republican from Texas, introduced the United States-Israel Framework for Upgraded Technologies, Unified Research, and Enhanced Security (Futures) Act of 2026 alongside companion authorities successful nan Senate introduced by senators Ted Budd, a Republican from North Carolina, and Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat from New York. Israel’s lobby prominently endorsed and lobbied connected nan legislation.
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a pro-Israel thinktank primitively incorporated arsenic “Emet”, nan Hebrew connection for “truth”, and committed, according to its founding IRS filings, “to provid[ing] acquisition to heighten Israel’s image successful North America and nan public’s knowing of issues affecting Israeli-Arab relations”, advocated for person integration of US and Israeli militaries and weapons investigation and improvement successful a December report, Beyond nan US-Israel MOU: The Case for a Strategic Partnership Agreement.
Two months later, nan Foundation for Defense of Democracies was nan only extracurricular validator for nan authorities connected Davis’s 19 February property release. “The United States–Israel Futures Act builds connected decades of successful collaboration by improving practice crossed nan public, private, and world sectors to swiftly develop, test, and section defense technologies that will thief safeguard US work members and supply Israel pinch nan intends to combat a divers group of threats from overseas adversarial states and panic groups,” said Tyler Stapleton, elder head of authorities relations astatine nan FDD. “FDD Action powerfully supports nan bipartisan United States-Israel Futures Act.”
On 19 February, Washington’s largest pro-Israel lobby group, nan American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), endorsed nan legislation, highlighting its “key provisions”, including “encouraging US-based co-production, associated ventures, and manufacturing partnerships pinch Israeli industry”.
Aipac besides reported lobbying connected nan US-Israel Futures Act connected Capitol Hill arsenic good arsenic astatine nan Department of Defense successful nan first 4th of nan year. While neither nan House nor Senate authorities made it retired of committee, nan aforesaid legislative architecture and overmuch of nan aforesaid connection appeared successful conception 224 of nan NDAA, buried heavy wrong nan 505-page draught legislation.
In short, Aipac and nan FDD were successful successful moving their unpopular legislative agendas forward, moreover arsenic some nan House and Senate bills stay stalled successful committees.
Make nary mistake, nan intent and nan consequences of this legislation, dubbed nan United States–Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative, spell far, acold beyond nan sharing of subject exertion that traditionally has attracted truthful overmuch support among Senators and Congress members.
For nan Israel-first theorists whose reasoning and position papers guided its formulation, it is nan proverbial camel’s nose. By making nan United States progressively limited connected Israeli exertion – successful AI, quantum computing, high-powered lasers, cyberwarfare, anti-drone systems, and different precocious fields – while besides transferring America’s astir blase technologies to Israeli governments, Israel and its advocates are softly steering nan narration distant from patronage aliases moreover business and toward thing much asymmetrical: a building designed to harness American powerfulness for nan intends of “Zionism 2.0”.
That was nan imagination precocious by David Wurmser, nan main writer of nan Clean Break archive – a 1996 argumentation insubstantial submitted to Benjamin Netanyahu, which advocated ending nan Oslo bid process, casting nan US and Israel arsenic engaged successful a struggle to take sides occidental civilization, empowering Israel to reshape nan governmental scenery of nan Middle East, and overthrowing regimes successful nan region, opening pinch Iraq. Its signatories included Richard Perle and Douglas Feith. All 3 were highly placed wrong nan George W Bush management arsenic architects of nan American penetration of Iraq.
Wurmser introduced this caller “Zionism 2.0” model successful a report published nan aforesaid period nan US-Israel Futures Act was introduced. Titled Israel 2048: A Blueprint for a Rising Asymmetric Geopolitical Power, nan study advocates an Israeli information strategy based connected “preventative wars”. US authorization for these wars is to beryllium achieved by forging specified an friendly narration betwixt nan Israeli and US militaries that Israel would go “indispensable” to nan United States, some successful nan Middle East and successful its world struggle to take sides “western civilization” against Russia, China and an progressively Islamized Europe.
Their imagination is of “New Jerusalem” (the US) wedded to “Old Jerusalem” (Israel) connected nan ground of some having been divinely chosen for nan ngo of redeeming civilization from nan “red-green” (Marxist-Muslim) alliance.
For Israel, this intends not conscionable ruling each nan territory betwixt nan Jordan River and nan Mediterranean Sea, but dominating nan Middle East, launching wars of “prevention” against each imaginable adversaries (including Turkey, Iran and moreover Egypt) and, pinch Britain and France succumbing to nan power of overseas immigrants and nan illness of “European secularism”, serving arsenic nan US’s astir important state successful its world struggle to sphere “civilization” – branded either “Jewish-Christian” aliases “western”.
The extravagance of specified ideas intelligibly marks nan origins of nan project, exposing nan power of well-funded dark-money groups and thinktanks exerting their power connected behalf of Israel’s government.
Now is nan clip to opportunity what conception 224 of nan National Defense Authorization Act really is: not an confederation pinch a talented and responsible state that will thief support nan US safe, but a trap being group by Israel and its lobby to hindrance our state to a authorities that, for each its past promise, has gone rogue.
-
Ian Lustick and Eli Clifton are co-authors of nan forthcoming book Israel’s Lobby: America successful nan Grip of a Foreign Power, retired successful August
