In a deeply troubling development, Israeli military scientists have genetically modified one of the deadliest bioweapons known to man—Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes pneumonic plague—and then used its altered genetic material to engineer a new mRNA vaccine that programs human cells to manufacture plague proteins tied to virulence and immune system evasion.
This follows the U.S. military’s genetic engineering of plague DNA into E. coli using CRISPR—a move detailed in a peer-reviewed study just weeks before the World Health Organization added the plague-caused Black Death to its official pandemic watchlist, raising fresh concerns over bioweapons development.
Unlike the U.S., China, and Russia, Israel has never ratified the Biological Weapons Convention—meaning its military bioengineering of the plague bacterium and insertion of its virulence genes into an mRNA shot occurs outside the binding framework of international bioweapons law.
The United States provides Israel with approximately $3.8 billion in military aid annually under a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that extends through 2028.
Nearly all current U.S. aid to Israel is for military purposes, delivered primarily as grants through the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program.
Hellbound and Down 