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
the us is a “successful” israel
Not so fun fact: corporations can vote in Delaware.
Our whole government need to be dissolved and rebuilt. American politicians are all bought by foreign interests and corporations.
all bought by foreign interests
If there’s one thing you can always guarantee, it’s that Americans will blame their problems on foreigners.
AIPAC is running follow up jokes on blowing the most cash to defeat progressive candidates and backing Israel aligned politicians in both Dem and Republican primaries.
As if domestic elites aren’t
Wouldn’t argue with that either. America has nukes and a child rapist who won’t leave office. I’ll see you in the inexorable hell scape.
Get rid of citizens united. Strip companies of their “personhood”.
Those things alone would go a long way.
Next tax the shit out of the wealthy.
It hurts my heart that so many Americans will never know pre 9/11 America before we decided to eat ourselves alive.
Back when you merely ate unimportant foreigners alive
I mean I’m not gonna argue with that but it wasn’t full blown Nazi.
Yes, it’s only “full blown Nazi” when you start doing it to white people
You just seem like an asshole. Hope you taste the boot.
Average scratched liberal
Egosyntonia is a helluva drug.
The US has been eating itself alive since Reagan. 9/11 is just when it reached a tipping point.
9/11 fundamentally changed the math and brought us back to the McCarthy era which Regan and as most defiantly a part of. What 9/11 did was turn the Dem party into Republican light and it has never moved back.
Regan is surely the reason for the season but what 9/11 did to America was hit at the fundamentals of its soul and made itself its number one enemy. Osama Bin Laden staged the most successful attack in the history of America because it made America completely abandon our constitution and paved the way, along with reality tv, directly to where we are as a country today. A mess of hatred and dominated by the tyrant of the minority without any hope in sight.
There was literally only one Democratic president between Regan and 9/11
And?
And so it’s kind of silly to say that Dems turned to the right because of 9/11, when the only president we have to base that off of was Clinton. The same president that oversaw right-wing welfare reforms and crime reforms and helped NATO bomb several countries.
Since the
middle passagegenocide of aboriginal peoples, tbh.
US and Israel are no longer pretending to be different countries.
Sweet, can I get some of that free healthcare then? I’ll even put on a little hat if they want.
Well Israel also has compulsory military service, so effectively, free healthcare comes from doing war crimes.
You can get free healthcare by doing war crimes for the US too.
Yeah I’ve seen how VA handles healthcare, I think I’m good.
Will we even notice any difference?
Less news about “another 10 billion for israel” because it will all be hidden in the “military budget”
lets be honest , israel has always been a giant US military base now its becoming more official
The US might be a giant military base for Israel at this point.
I thought us didn’t have any base there until recently?
What they are saying is that Israel is an imperial vassal state of the US. It always has been.
Other way around.
Its the same empire. As with any colonial empire, the bleeding edge of colonialism takes precedent. Land grabs are the only way to secure long term physical assets after all.
Edit: IOW, its not one or the other. They are one and the same.
Just saying that it seems like Israel is calling the shots for our domestic and foreign policy at this point.
Yes.
I’m not so sure. Maybe they are. Or maybe they’re a willing scapegoat with their own goals.
Yeah, I probably read it too literally.
Actually, you haven’t read it literally enough.
What the fuck is going on with our congress? How are they so fucking bonkers? This does not at all serve our national interest
We should be doing what our constitution instructed us to in these circumstances.
It serves the interest of capital. The biggest difference between the fascist interest of the past and the present is that capital has globalized to such a degree that there is essentially no loyalty to a nation as you would see in to some degree in the past. If it existed at all really - many American capitalist were aligned with the Nazis more than their own country. Henry Ford being a household name as an example.
Now, this doesn’t mean fascist don’t still use nationalism as a tool. But, the capitalist interest that the fascist protect are the priority and have been disconnected from the imperial core so much that their is no material benefit that they need to offer. The imperial core essentially serves as a speculative financial market and nothing more. Their only value has been reduced to upholding the societal structures that allow that to continue.
They just don’t care about pretending anymore. American foreign policy has always been that of imperialism and colonialism. It only makes sense that those interests have empowered and moved to its most valuable proxy state in Israel. To such a degree that any foreign policy action is now centered around its own attack dogs interests.
The people that say “Israel is controlling American foreign policy” or the people that attempt to explain that “Israel is just the attack dog for American interest” are both right and wrong to a degree.
The conversation based on national interest is just not sufficient to really explain it. It is definitely still important to understanding the past and how we got here. It is important in understanding how national identities still impact media narratives today.
But, the idea of “Israel controls America” is about as useful as “the Jews control America”. The identity of states in our current world is as unhelpful as Liberals of the past aligning with fascist to use Jews, Communist, or any other scapegoat to point to as the problem.
It’s why we are seeing a preparation in the right wing and left of American politics to pivot away from Israel in a post Trump era.
It is only my hope that the socdem politics of Mamdani on the left win out against the upcoming Tucker Carlson anti Israel politics of the right.
America will use Israel as it’s scapegoat for its own Imperialist crimes. This is certain. However, the right will only move into rascism, Imperialism, and fascism further. The leftward movement is the only chance we have to actually hold the true criminals and capitalist oligarchs accountable one day. But, for now, it’s a left that benefits from Americans believing their national identity is still “separate” from the crimes of its military and Israel. We just do not have the level of class consciousness for Americans to understand this yet. The left will not benefit from explaining what I’m explaining now. The masses are not there yet. So a message of “Israel is the problem” is a better explanation at this point. It allows us to combat the anti Israel shift on the right by agreeing with it and offering a better solution.
The masses aren’t prepared for class based explanations. All they will hear at this point would be “Israel isn’t the only problem” while the right falls for simple “what is going on” Tucker Carlson like explanations that allow Americans to feel better that “it’s just Israel”.
I just hope we can build class consciousness before it’s too late. Because fascism doesn’t end with Trump if we get another 4 years of of neoliberalism that follows. The left needs to show it can deliver real material improvement to the working class of America. And right now. That’s only done by agreeing with the post Trump right that “Israel is the problem” and not getting stuck in trying to get people to understand the class based explanation like this comment gives.
Americans won’t be swayed by the moral arguments of the left. They won’t even be swayed by explaining that the billionaires are their enemies. They will only build class consciousness when they see the material benefits to their lives of leftist politics. And their whole lives they have been conditioned into believing that that is something as neoliberal and capitalist as “Obamacare”.
“National interest” has always been a euphemism for “bourgeois class interest.” It has never meant our interests, those of the proletarian majority. Previously.
“National interest” has always been a euphemism for “bourgeois class interest.”
This is correct. American “national security interests” is an ideological cover for the monopoly capitalist interests themselves. Like transnational weapons corporations, the massive tech companies, the oil and gas monopolies, and finance capitalists.
This is also why appeals to say “arming israel is against US national interest” will always be a do-nothing political position inside the NATO countries. Because war & genocide is the permanent condition of imperialism and primary method of capital accumulation (see work by Ali Kadri)
they’re bought and paid for
You suffer from the illusion that congress as it currently exists represents humans. Congress represents corporate persons and special interests. There are two categories of corporate persons, a) those with just enough foresight to still be mildly afraid human persons will catch on and do something to overthrow them (Democrats), b) those who don’t care what you cattle think, because they have the psychological tools to manipulate you into doing whatever they want (Republicans). At no point is your opinion relevant because neither party actually cares, they’ll have their public relations team tell you what you’re permitted to care about closer to election day. AIPAC, the special interest group representing the Israeli government funds both, and so extracts favors as they see fit. It’s not at all crazy once you recognize the underlying structure. Evil, but not crazy.
they are fascists. this is the kind of thing fascists do.
It’s more than that, it’s just straight up fucking treason and grifting at its highest.
Oh no, I was ok with fascism, but treason (against a fascist nation)? That’s too far!
I can excuse fascism, but I draw the line at treason and grifting!
as is tradition for us fascists
Citizen’s United, and AIPAC.
Do not vote for ANY politician who has received a single dollar from the Israeli lobby. It’s more important than voting with your preferred party.
Liberal zionists are thr most dangerous , beware of j-streets
Don’t forget CUFI. Not enough people I find bring up the fact that usamerican Christians support Israel and fund it just as much or more than AIPAC.
i think you have not been paying attention since the us was founded
Can someone post the actual text of Section 224?
Sec. 224—United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative This section would require the Secretary of Defense to designate an executive agent responsible for synchronizing cooperative efforts between the United States and Israel, including bilateral defense technology research, development, testing, evaluation, integration, and industrial cooperation.
Is that it?
Can’t wait for progressive politicians to change their platform from “conditioning military aid to Israel” to “making military aid to Israel more transparent”.
What “progressive” politician would be ok with this bullshit? This is a Fetterman or Jeffries or Schumer line.
This is the line of the Congressional Progressive Caucus https://progressives.house.gov/2025/9/progressive-caucus-endorses-block-the-bombs-act
Following a vote of its membership, the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) endorsed the Block the Bombs Act, which prohibits the United States transfer of weapons that the Israeli military has used in its bombardment of Gaza until human rights violations cease
You can basically guarantee that any elected politician in this country appends weasel-words to any good-sounding policy they promote.
If the weapons transfers become secret, they’ll stop talking about Block the Bombs and start talking about how they need to be more transparent.
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.
Are they going for Nazi²?
Was the goal from the get go
For some reason all I see is a picture, not the article. Here’s the link in case anyone else has the same problem:
Well-known and persistent kbin/mbin cross-platform issue. Thanks for posting the link.
Ah, so it won’t be covered by the Leahy law that USAID reported as being breached and the US should stop sending military aid to Israel because of that.
