Israel-first Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee have voted to integrate U.S. and Israeli militaries, a move that enables Israelis to steal American military secrets and sell them to China, Russia, and other hostile nations.
In approving the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, committee Republicans rejected an amendment from Democratic Representative Ro Khanna of California that would have removed Section 224. This section grants Israel access to secret U.S. military, intelligence, and technology information.
Now that the bill has passed committee, outgoing GOP Representative Thomas Massie will offer a floor amendment to strip the dangerous measure.
Section 224 expands bilateral defense technology research, development, testing, evaluation, integration, and industrial cooperation between the two nations. It includes identifying jointly developed or Israeli-origin technologies with operational utility for potential integration into U.S. systems; ensuring collaborative research initiatives involving government, private sector, and academic institutions in the United States and Israel that protect sensitive technology and information; and establishing frameworks for joint ventures, licensing agreements, and U.S.-based co-production partnerships with Israeli industry.
The measure also facilitates cooperation on missile defense, cyber-defense, electronic warfare, and artificial intelligence. Ben Freeman noted that Section 224 would “lay the groundwork for bilateral research and development, co-production of weapons, joint ventures, licensing agreements, and seemingly every manner of U.S.-Israeli military-industrial complex cooperation.” He emphasized that while the U.S. and Israel already collaborate on missile defense, this provision would greatly expand coordination to include artificial intelligence, quantum computing, autonomous systems, directed energy, cyber, biotech, and more.
Former U.S. counterterrorism director Joe Kent warned: “We are creating access and control mechanisms for a nation that has drastically different goals than America does.” He stressed the need to keep key technologies restricted to Americans only, noting the risks of back doors and spyware being installed by Israel to influence U.S. policy.
Kent further explained that Section 224 would empower the Israel Lobby by enabling Israel to create jobs in the United States, thereby securing allies among members of Congress who represent districts where those jobs are located.
Another concern is that Israel might pass American military secrets to foreign powers. This follows a historical example: Jonathan Pollard, a Navy intelligence analyst convicted of passing secrets to Israel, was believed to have provided stolen U.S. information to the Soviet Union.
Representative Khanna, who opposed Section 224, stated: “The American people are tired of the arrogance and insolence of Prime Minister Netanyahu telling America what we should do.” He criticized Netanyahu’s gross domestic product being smaller than that of a single town in his district while demanding U.S. policy be dictated by Israel.
Khanna argued that Congress must reject Section 224, which was directly proposed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He stressed: “We should have American sovereignty and make it clear that we strike 224.”
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers defended the provision as improving oversight and accountability, claiming it designates a single official responsible for the programs.
On May 30, Thomas Massie stated on social media: “We are a sovereign country.”