The shift will strip away the political and diplomatic oversight mechanisms that make the relationship publicly accountable, moving it from a visible annual aid vote into the opaque machinery of defense acquisition, where oversight is limited and political accountability is minimal. The result would be a defense relationship that is simultaneously deeper and less transparent.
This all comes at a time when the Israeli military has repeatedly used U.S. weapons in strikes that have violated international humanitarian laws in Gaza, and as Israel has repeatedly violated ceasefires (as has the U.S. itself) in the Trump administration’s unnecessary war with Iran.
The enormous gulf between what most Americans want and what the president is doing when it comes to Israel and what Congress is proposing here should not be ignored. Just 30% of respondents to a New York Times/Sienna poll from mid-May believe Trump made “the right decision” to go to war with Iran, with 64% saying it was wrong. An Institute for Global Affairs poll released earlier this week dove even deeper into the American psyche when it comes to arming Israel, finding that “Just 16 percent say the United States should keep supplying Israel with weapons without new restrictions. Thirty-eight percent want to stop supplying weapons entirely, and another 24 percent want weapons conditioned on how they’re used.”
Yet, mainstream leadership in both parties remains largely pro-Israel and continues to shape the base legislative text before amendments and broader congressional debate open it to the full body, as is the case with this NDAA provision.
Crosspost from https://lemmy.ml/post/48024011
Generally progressives have a bit more of a spine and dig deeper into things. I don’t see this as a bad thing when the entirety of the Dem party is more aligned with republicans than progressives. I would expect the centrist Dems to talk about transparency in the way you are talking about it. The progressive bloc in the U.S. is absolutely not in favor of supplying or funding the genocide perpetrated by Israel of the Palestinians.
I quoted their Block the Bombs Act position, which the best progressives in Congress like Jayapal and Tlaib are supporting as recently as a day ago https://www.facebook.com/RepJayapal/videos/the-american-people-do-not-want-the-us-government-to-continue-using-taxpayer-dol/860051216542538/ (not that it’s a bad thing, but Block the Bombs obviously won’t get passed and doesn’t use strong enough language).
I’m saying, if weapons to Israel become secret, that will only move the narrative to the right. Progressives might start calling for transparency instead of sticking with Block the Bombs.
I see what you are saying. I would hope that they wouldn’t switch to begging for transparency. Progressives have very little power at the moment because they have to fight Dems alongside the establishment Dems and republicans and maga and the libertarians. I doubt that they would back track on that considering it’s such a fixture of the platform despite the dnc’s stupidity.