(LifeSiteNews) — After their bipartisan collaboration in successfully passing the Epstein Files Transparency Act last year, two members of the U.S. House of Representatives are leading efforts to block a provision in the FY2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would dramatically deepen military integration between the United States and Israel.

Republican U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democrat U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna of California are sounding an alarm over Section 224 of the bill titled the “United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative.” This provision would designate a Pentagon “executive agent” to oversee expanded bilateral research and development, co-production of weapons, joint ventures, licensing agreements, network integration, and data fusion across advanced technologies including AI, quantum, autonomous systems, directed energy, cyber, and biotech.

Experts object that this goes far beyond traditional U.S. military aid — more than $200 billion inflation-adjusted since 1948 — and would fuse the two countries’ defense sectors in unprecedented ways, reducing transparency and accountability while embedding Israeli priorities into U.S. supply chains.

Ben Freeman at Responsible Statecraft described the measure as the “first step towards shifting aid further into the shadows,” avoiding accountability to the American public. It would also create a higher level of military-industrial integration than the U.S. maintains with any other nation, including NATO partners who are formal allies sharing a mutual defense treaty.

US giving up its national security secrets and sovereignty to Israel

The provision is further ordered toward making U.S. military data accessible to Israel, thereby rendering Israel’s aggressive spying on the U.S. security establishment over many decades much less necessary.

READ: Convicted spy Jonathan Pollard says Israel will target Turkey, Egypt next

As explained by constitutional attorney Robert Barnes, the provision would give Israel classified data and technological access “as if they’re part of the U.S. military” and allow “arms shipments to be made and military technology and national security technology to be shared without any special vote or particular action of the president,” making it less visible to the public at a time when the American citizenry is expressing unprecedented distrust in the Israeli government.

“This is truly unprecedented in American history that as a matter of law, no matter who the president is — and no matter what the president wants — the Israeli military will have access to American national security secrets and its generals will be on a par with ours,” Judge Andrew Napolitano lamented on Monday, commenting on the provision.

Former British diplomat and veteran Middle East specialist Alastair Crooke responded, stating, “it’s really in no interest of the United States to give up its sovereignty in this way to another state — to give up its sovereignty and also all its data and also all its technical abilities to hand it over to a foreign state. So, I can’t imagine what will be the consequences of this.”

Direct aid to Israel unpopular, provision enables an ‘end around’ foreign sales process

On Sunday, Massie publicly vowed to offer a floor amendment to strip the section if it survives committee markup. “We are a sovereign country,” he wrote on X, emphasizing concerns about the U.S. losing more of its independence.

If the provision in the NDAA to integrate/synchronize the U.S. and Israeli militaries (section 224) makes it out of committee, I’ll offer an amendment to strip it from the bill on the floor.

We are a sovereign country.https://t.co/HwvSXXxKlW pic.twitter.com/2vIkjLatEE

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) May 30, 2026

Khanna, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, responded by pledging to introduce an amendment during the committee process to remove Section 224 entirely. “Thomas Massie and I are not done working together,” he announced in an X video post referencing the popular Kentucky congressman’s recent defeat at the hands of the Israel lobby.

“Thomas Massey and I are teaming up again to remove Section 224 from our defense bill,” Khanna said in the short video. “Section 224 is a first step in integrating our military with Israel’s military.”

“Basically, the establishment has figured out that direct aid to Israel is unpopular, so they want to do an end run around the foreign sales process,” the California Democrat explained. “The foreign sales at least requires a commitment to upholding human rights. Under this section, you would have a fusion of the United States and Israel’s military, so there’s no human rights test and no vote on aid. We need to strip Section 224.”

Only 16% of Americans support weapons to Israel without restrictions

These unprecedented moves come at a time when the Israeli military has routinely employed U.S.-supplied weapons in strikes that violated international humanitarian law in Gaza, and as both Israel and the United States itself have repeatedly broken ceasefire agreements during the Trump administration’s unnecessary war with Iran.

The sharp contrast between the views of most Americans on these topics, with the policies being continually advanced and implemented by the Trump White House and the U.S. Congress are becoming stark.

An Institute for Global Affairs poll released May 19 examined American attitudes on arming Israel in greater depth, finding that just 16% believe the United States should continue supplying weapons without new restrictions, 38% want to end all weapons supplies entirely, and another 24% support conditioning weapons on how they are used.

Furthermore, a mid-May New York Times/Siena poll found only 30% of respondents said they believed Trump made “the right decision” by going to war with Iran and 64% said it was the wrong choice.

Petition: US should withdraw the support that enables Israel’s atrocities

A citizens’ petition organized through Action Network urges members of the House Armed Services Committee to remove the provision, arguing it would undermine U.S. defense industry competitiveness, expose sensitive technologies, and shift leverage toward Israel while shielding cooperation from congressional oversight.

Recognizing the plummeting support for Israel in the U.S. electorate, the petition observes that this “effort to shift U.S.-Israel military cooperation from foreign assistance to defense cooperation is a shell game designed to shield Israel from shifting U.S. political directions.”

Furthermore, “Section 224 also assumes a commonality of national security interests between Israel and the U.S., which, as the current conflict with Iran clearly demonstrates, does not exist,” the letter states.

Additionally, the authors note how “much of Israel’s defense technology has been developed through testing on human subjects — the Palestinians who are subject to Israel’s continuous electronic surveillance in the West Bank, and its continuous military bombardment in Gaza,” while they remain “accused of grievous violations of human rights.”

“Far from deepening defense cooperation” with Israel, “the U.S. should be withdrawing the support that enables its atrocities,” the petition declares.

US and Israeli military ties are poised to become more deeply entrenched than ever under a controversial provision buried within the proposed National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), according to former State Department official Josh Paul.

Critics argue the measure is not… pic.twitter.com/y4VQJMHW1D

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) May 30, 2026

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