Tag: israel

US-Israel Defense Integration on Horizon as House Keeps Section 219 in NDAA

The House is preparing to vote on the Fiscal Year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) with Section 219 (formerly section 224) still embedded in the roughly $1.1 trillion bill.

The House approved the rule governing debate on H.R. 8800 by a 214-211 vote Tuesday, July 21. The vote allowed the chamber to proceed with the NDAA but excluded the amendment from Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) that would have removed Section 219.

Lawmakers will not receive a separate vote on the bipartisan amendment that sought to remove the section, a proposal to expand U.S.-Israel defense technology cooperation that has garnered strong rebukes in certain political and defense circles.

The House expects to hold a recorded vote on the complete NDAA on Wednesday.

What Section 219 Would Do

Section 219 would direct the defense secretary to designate a Pentagon “executive agent” to oversee the United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative. That official would coordinate bilateral defense research, development, testing, evaluation and industrial cooperation.

The proposal originated as the bipartisan, bicameral United States-Israel FUTURES Act, introduced in the House by Reps. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) and Don Davis (D-N.C.) with companion legislation from Sens. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.).

Jackson framed the proposal as a way to preserve America’s technological advantage and deliver new battlefield capabilities to service members. Davis emphasized its potential to prepare troops for evolving threats, particularly unmanned systems and electronic warfare.

Sens. Budd and Gillibrand have similarly presented the initiative as an expansion of existing work on missile defense, drones, and underground threats as a means to strengthen American military and technological capabilities.

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The Collapse of the Bipartisan Consensus Over US-Israel Ties

For decades, U.S. support for Israel rested on one of Washington’s strongest bipartisan assumptions: that military assistance was strategically necessary and politically untouchable. But Gaza has weakened that consensus.

Critics now see Israeli military aid as a misguided strategy and political target. The most visible shift has occurred inside the Democratic Party.

A collapsing bipartisan consensus on Israel

Driven by voter and demographic shifts, humanitarian concerns in Gaza, and the unwarranted conflict with Iran, more than 100 House Democrats recently supported an amendment seeking to block billions of dollars in Israel-related assistance, an extraordinary departure from previous voting patterns.

House Democratic leadership (including Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries) has officially called for a “major reset” in U.S.-Israel relations.

Senate efforts to restrict weapons transfers have also attracted substantial Democratic support, reflecting growing concern about civilian casualties, international law, and U.S. responsibility.

The Republican coalition is also less unified than before. While most Republican lawmakers remain strongly supportive of Israel, MAGA-aligned figures influenced by anti-interventionism, “America First” priorities, and skepticism toward foreign aid have increasingly questioned open-ended commitments.

Growing opposition within the MAGA movement to U.S. arms transfers centers on a deep ideological rift over foreign interventionism. Former Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene left office in January 2026 after a bitter falling out with President Trump.

While much of the base supports President Trump’s foreign policy, a growing, vocal faction – backed by prominent voices like Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and Representative Thomas Massie – challenges continued, unconditional weapons shipments.

The result is a new political landscape: traditional pro-Israel Democrats, evangelical conservatives, progressive Democrats, libertarian Republicans, and anti-interventionist conservatives now approach the issue from fundamentally different premises.

The debate is therefore no longer simply “pro-Israel versus anti-Israel.” It concerns whether U.S. strategic interests, domestic law, international obligations, and humanitarian concerns can continue to be reconciled under existing policy.

From political controversy to legal challenges

At the same time, legal initiatives accusing U.S. officials of complicity or failure to prevent alleged Israeli violations have moved the debate from politics into courts, international institutions, and questions of historical accountability.

The legal debate has developed along several tracks. The most significant U.S. case was Defense for Children International–Palestine v. Biden, brought by Palestinian organizations, Gaza residents, and Palestinian-Americans against President Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, for their alleged “failure to prevent and complicity in the unfolding genocide against Gaza.”

Along with the human rights organizations, the lawsuit was promoted by Josh Paul who had resigned from the U.S. State Department over arms shipments to Israel; Jewish Voice for Peace; and genocide and Holocaust scholars spearheaded by international lawyer William Schabas.

The plaintiffs proposed that a genocide, or serious risk of genocide, of Palestinians in Gaza was occurring. They also argued the U.S. is violating its duties under international law to prevent and not be complicit in the genocide. Those U.S. failures were seen to contribute to the erosion of “long and widely held norms of international law,” including the Genocide Convention and Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Palestine et al. v. Biden et al. case was dismissed by the U.S. Court with a ruling that “while it is plausible that Israel’s conduct amounts to genocide,” U.S. foreign policy was a political question over which courts lacked jurisdiction. In a written decision, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White quoted approvingly from a prior preliminary ruling (by the ICJ in the case brought against Israel by South Africa). It found Israel’s conduct in Gaza may amount to genocide and ordered it to stop killing and wounding Palestinians.

Other initiatives include advocacy and legal campaigns by groups such as Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), which warned U.S. officials that continued assistance after awareness of alleged violations could raise questions of aiding and abetting.

DAWN wanted the ICC to investigate Biden, Blinken, and Austin for violating Articles 25(3)(c) and (d) of the Rome Statute. These crimes featured those identified in the ICC arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Intriguingly, the DAWN submission widened the net of “accessorial liability” to include several other U.S. officials as well.

More recently, DAWN and allied organizations have also challenged Trump administration’s measures targeting ICC-related advocacy.

Genocide scholar William Schabas and other international-law experts have supported arguments that third-party states may face responsibility if they knowingly facilitate atrocities. In the mainstream corporate media, these remain contested (though increasingly popular) legal interpretations. Yet, the latter have expanded the debate beyond Israel itself to states providing weapons, diplomatic protection, or political cover.

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Inspired by Trump, Israel Advances Plan for Crocodile-Ringed Prison for Palestinians

The Israeli government this week stripped Nile crocodiles of their protected status in order to advance a proposal that National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said was inspired by the Trump administration’s now-shuttered Alligator Alcatraz to build a prison for Palestinians surrounded by a moat full of the ravenous reptiles.

“You read that right,” the liberal US Jewish group J Street said in response to the news. “When cruelty becomes a governing principle instead of an aberration within the Israeli government, something has gone deeply wrong.”

Israeli Environmental Minister Idit Silman signed a directive Wednesday reclassifying Nile crocodiles as “specially managed wild animals,” a novel legal category enabling the government to keep them for security purposes.

Ben-Gvir, who heads the Israel Prison Service (IPS), said he was inspired by the Trump administration’s recently closed Alligator Alcatraz immigrant detention center in Florida. He is seeking to first introduce crocodiles into a moat around Ketziot Prison in southern Israel.

While it is not certain that the plan will come to fruition, Ben-Gvir celebrated Silman’s decree in a social media post showing him petting a crocodile, with the caption: “Cursed terrorist, thinking of trying to escape? Think again.”

Palestinians have occasionally escaped from Israeli lockups, such as in September 2021, when six men used improvised tools, including spoons, to tunnel out of the high-security Gilboa Prison. All six escapees were caught within weeks.

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‘Sip your coffee while watching the sunrise’: How Israel is colonizing the West Bank by selling Palestinian land to Jewish Americans

In mid-May, protesters gathered outside a synagogue in Brooklyn to demonstrate against a real estate expo being held inside. The properties advertised for sale were not located in New York City, but in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, and the target clientele was members of the Jewish American community. 

The “Great Israeli Real Estate Event,” organized by the Israeli company, My Home in Israel, was one of many property fares held across the U.S., Canada, and the UK, targeting prospective Anglophone Jewish buyers. A recently scheduled London event carrying the same name drew widespread condemnation last June from human rights groups and over 100 British lawmakers.

The settlements at the top of the event’s promoted property listings included Ma’ale Adumim, Givat Ze’ev, Karnei Shomron, and Kfar Eldad. Each listed area is undergoing urban expansion and new construction, concurrent with seizure and confiscation orders targeting the Palestinian lands surrounding them  — a systematic process aimed at entrenching settlement dominance.

The promotional advertising for these settlements deploys seductive language to attract investment. An advertisement for a real estate project in Kfar Eldad, located within the Gush Etzion Regional Council southeast of Bethlehem, pitches a rural lifestyle “close to Jerusalem, far from the routine.”  The ad reads: “Time flows a bit differently around here. In the morning you can sip your coffee while watching the sunrise, and just 12 minutes later, before your coffee has even cooled, find yourself in Jerusalem. And in the evening, you’ll return to soothing tranquility. This makes Kfar Eldad the perfect alternative for those seeking reasonably priced housing close to Jerusalem, but away from the noise and traffic of city life.”

Behind the glossy brochures and manicured images of “modern residential communities” lie painful chapters of systematic Palestinian land confiscation — a process that has expanded in recent years to encompass nearly half of the total area that Israeli occupation authorities have declared “state lands” since the Oslo Accords were signed.

The “soothing tranquility” in the hills and open terrain of Bethlehem was, until recently, home to Palestinian and Bedouin communities who practiced seasonal farming and herding. Those original inhabitants were barred from accessing their land, which was confiscated under military orders decades ago, before settlement projects were built on it.

“I owned land in the area of the Gush Etzion bloc’s expansion — land covered in hanging grapevines and almond trees of all kinds,” Ibrahim Ataallah, a resident of Khirbet Beit Skaria, told Mondoweiss. “But I was barred from accessing it after a confiscation order was issued [in 1984]. Even though we in Beit Skaria hold the legal documents proving ownership of the land we live on, they see us as an obstacle to the settlement expansion in Gush Etzion.”

As Atallah described the location of his plot of land, and the grapevines and almond trees it once bore, he looked at the maps and advertisements published by Hebrew real estate websites advertising properties in the Gush Etzion area. An advertisement describing the features of a plot for sale caught his eye. Though he could not pinpoint his own land on the map due to its lack of clarity, the descriptions of the land for sale and the lifestyle being offered to potential settlers hit close to home. 

“I really did drink my coffee at sunrise and waited for my friends from Jerusalem to join me,” he said. “We would talk about the price of grapes at the market, the coffee still warm by the time they arrived.”

“All that separates us from Jerusalem was a few kilometers,” he lamented. Today, that short distance no longer implies access. As a Palestinian ID holder, Atallah is barred from entering Jerusalem without a permit, transforming what was once a routine trip to visit friends into a near-impossible journey.

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Israel Pays Millions to “Influencers” to Shore Up American Support

Israel is waging a multimillion-dollar propaganda campaign to shore up support for the country among Americans.

Alarmed by polls that show Americans are increasingly fed up with their tax dollars subsidizing Israel’s reckless military campaigns, The Wall Street Journal reported, the nation is waging that campaign with conservative “influencers” as well as with artificial intelligence.

The latest revelation shows that Israel is terrified that American economic and military largesse will end if support among Americans continues cratering. And it follows last week’s report from Time that U.S. President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Brad Parscale, an Israeli foreign agent, ran a campaign to block the memorandum of understanding that temporarily ended Trump’s unconstitutional war with Iran.

Millions of Dollars, Millions of Texts

“Emma” and “Sarah” are part of a group called “Friends for Peace” and text messages asking, “How do you think the U.S. and Israel’s peace talks with Iran will impact global security?” the Journal reported, citing an example of the Israeli propaganda.

“Millions of similar texts have flooded American cellphones in recent months,” the newspaper disclosed:

They are written with artificial intelligence, pushed by a longtime Trump adviser’s firm — and paid for by the Israeli government.

The reason: A strong majority of Americans — six of 10 of those polled — now views Israel unfavorably, Pew Research found in March, because of its wars against Gaza and Iran.

So “Israel is pouring tens of millions of dollars into a somewhat quixotic effort to beat back that tide, drawing on novel strategies powered by AI and directly paying conservative media,” the Journal continued. The newspaper pointed to what Vice President J.D. Vance told podcaster Joe Rogan last week.

“You know there’s a lot of talk about how much is the Israeli government influencing American politics and there are certainly certain people within the Israeli government who hate the [Iran] deal,” Vance told the wildly popular podcaster:

And we see exact evidence. There was a Time story that came out yesterday that basically there are certain influencers in America who are being paid in order to attack the deal. 

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HILARIOUS: Mamdani Gets the Twitter/X Meme Treatment After Admitting He Doesn’t Have the Authority to Arrest Netanyahu

New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani has finally admitted that he lacks the authority to arrest Israeli leader Netanyahu.

While the media has taken this whole ridiculous affair seriously for some reason, people on the internet are giving it the mockery it deserves.

People have taken the image of Mamdani from his video and added their own funny commentary.

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House Narrowly Passes $1.15 Trillion Defense Bill That Integrates US Military Tech & Supply Chains With Israel

The House passed the Fiscal Year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act on Wednesday by a 216-212 vote, sending the $1.15 trillion measure to the Senate after one of the most partisan House votes in the must-pass bill’s recent history. Only six Democrats supported it, while seven Republicans voted no.

Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers praised a topline that he said finally “accounts for the true cost of American deterrence.” The authorization is a centerpiece of President Trump’s push to raise total defense spending to $1.5 trillion in fiscal 2027. Democrats opposed the measure over the unauthorized war with Iran – which has flared again since the collapse of a memorandum of understanding intended to open peace talks – as well as the attachment of the SAVE America Act’s mail-voting restrictions and voter-ID requirements. They also objected to a price tag they argue would be financed through cuts to domestic programs.

The amendment votes exposed the chamber’s other fault lines. Rep. Eli Crane’s proposal to halt nearly all military aid to Ukraine was defeated 76-350, while Rep. Lauren Boebert’s attempt to codify the ban on transgender military service failed 212-217. The House nevertheless adopted two amendments from Rep. Nancy Mace restricting gender-related care through the military’s TRICARE health system and barring transgender athletes from girls’ sports at Defense Department-run schools.

Opposition also came from lawmakers objecting to the bill’s US-Israel defense-industrial integration provisions. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was among the Democrats who cited Section 219, while Reps. Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna had announced that they would oppose final passage on the same grounds. The provision remained intact after the Rules Committee declined to permit a floor vote on their amendment to remove it.

The bill now heads to the Senate, where the companion measure, S. 4784, is already stalled. On July 14, the Senate rejected cloture on the motion to proceed, 50-46, after Democrats opposed advancing the bill in protest of the Iran war. With the House scheduled to leave Friday for a recess lasting through the end of August, any eventual conference negotiations are likely to be pushed into the fall.

A separate party-line effort to authorize $60 billion in new war-related spending also remains far short of the $350 billion the Pentagon originally sought.

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Even CNN is Laughing at Mamdani for Thinking He Has the Authority to Arrest Netanyahu in New York City

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has zero authority to arrest Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu and even the Democrat cheerleaders at CNN know it.

During a recent segment where they discussed the topic, legal analyst Elie Honig listed all of the reasons why Mamdani’s claims are utterly false.

He notes that all aspects of foreign policy and diplomacy are handled by the federal government, not local jurisdictions. He also points out that the arrest warrant that Mamdani is referencing in this case is from a body that is not even recognized by the United States.

The other people on the panel laugh along because they know Honig is absolutely right about this.

Partial transcript via the Vigilant Fox:

KEILAR: “Can Mamdani have Netanyahu arrested?”

HONIG: “Absolutely not. It is utterly RIDICULOUS for the mayor of New York City to even suggest that he might have the authority to order the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu or any visiting foreign head of state.”

“The mayor of New York City has ZERO law enforcement authority. He DOES NOT tell the Manhattan DA, the NYPD, who to arrest, who to indict.”

“So I know the mayor is having his best lawyers look at this right now. Let me save them some time. You DO NOT have the authority to do this.”

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Yet Another Way Canada Supports ‘Greater Israel’

In a bid to further subordinate Lebanon to US and Israeli dictates, Canada is devoting significant resources to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF). If the country descends into civil war Canada will bear some responsibility.

On Tuesday Canada’s ambassador to Lebanon Gregory Galligan had “a productive discussion with Lebanese Armed Forces Commander Gen. Haykal on the evolving security situation and implementation of the pilot zones. Canada is proud to support the LAF and its role in preserving Lebanon’s security and stability.” A week earlier ambassador Galligan posted about providing “600+ hygiene kits to women and girls from families of LAF soldiers affected by conflict.” Two months ago the ambassador announced a “useful discussion today with General Haykal and the Lebanese Armed Forces on the ongoing crisis. Reaffirmed Canada’s strong support for the LAF and its essential role in maintaining stability and security in Lebanon.” In February Canadian officials announced the “handing over of three rehabilitated warehouses to LAF.”

The Lebanese military is a western proxy, receiving most of its funds from foreign countries. Since Hezbollah delivered a strategic blow to Israel in the 2006 war the US has given more than $3 billion to the LAF. Washington provides half its budget while the European Union, Britain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have also provided hundreds of millions of dollars.

Through the Canadian Training and Assistance Team-Lebanon, Ottawa has donated tens of millions of dollars in equipment and other support to the LAF as part of an effort to turn it into a counterweight to Hezbollah. They’ve also trained over 2,000 LAF personnel and since 2019 Lebanon has participated in Canada’s Military Training and Cooperation Program.

The past four Canadian ambassadors have met the LAF head and often on multiple occasions. The Commander of Canadian Joint Operations, Major General JR Auchterlonie, and Canadian Brigadier General, Louis Lapointe, participated in at least two of those meetings. Two years ago in Beirut then foreign affairs minister Melanie Joly met then LAF head, Joseph Aoun, who became president last year.

On multiple occasions the Canadian, British and US ambassadors have met the head of the LAF together. Canada also partnered with Britain on a project to support the LAF.

As part of the US-overseen Israel-Lebanon framework agreement, Washington is pushing to have the LAF replace Hezbollah in the south where Israel has destroyed dozens of villages and killed thousands. According to the recent framework accord partly designed to undercut the US Memorandum of Understanding with Iran, the Israeli military is to withdraw from designated “pilot zones” that will be taken over by Lebanese troops vetted by the US military. The LAF is then supposed to dismantle Hezbollah infrastructure and prevent the resistance organization from re-establishing itself in these areas. US officials in Beirut are overseeing an initiative that gives Israel justification for its illegal occupation.

Ottawa explicitly supports this odious initiative. Two weeks Global Affairs posted, “Canada will continue to support the efforts of the Lebanese government and Lebanese Armed Forces to disarm and demobilize Hezbollah.” But the Lebanese military is completely incapable of resisting Israel. In fact, the LAF immediately withdrew from the south when Israel was about to invade in September 2024. In the past when the LAF has offered any resistance to Israel the US has punished the force.

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US-Israeli Bombing Has Harmed Iran’s Wildlife, Farms, and Water Supply

ust a few days before Tehran and Washington signed a now-defunct ceasefire agreement, local media in Iran reported that 25 goitered gazelles were killed in U.S. airstrikes on Kharg Island in the northern Persian Gulf. The small coral island is a key terminal for Iran’s oil exports and its unique wildlife includes white-headed seagulls, hawksbill sea turtles, and ospreys. It also hosts the ruins of a Dutch fort built in 1753. On multiple occasions, U.S. President Donald Trump has brandished the possibility of invading the island of 8,000 people.

The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran opened with the most intensive bombing campaign in modern history. Some 23,800 airstrikes were carried out in a span of 39 days, and one of its most consequential impacts was the environmental damage inflicted on Iran’s ecosystems. A June 17 memorandum of understanding halted the hostilities, but Trump notified Congress last week that he was resuming military action. Bombings are becoming a new norm, damaging Iran’s land, air, and water.

From toxic acid rain blanketing the Tehran metro area after Israel bombed the Iranian capital’s oil depots on March 7, to the emission of a substantial volume of greenhouse gases in the early phases of the campaign, the war has caused serious environmental degradation in a country reeling from a range of climate-related crises, water stress, and air quality issues. While international media have failed to consistently cover the negative environmental impacts of the war, environmental nonprofits, academic institutions, and climate advocates have documented extensive damage, only a portion of which has been understood to date.

According to a study by the Climate and Community Institute, 5 million metric tonnes of greenhouse gases were emitted due to the attacks on Iran in first 14 days of the war, which the nonprofit estimated exceeded Iceland’s carbon pollution over an entire year.

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