Twelve US senators challenge key provisions in Israel defence cooperation bill

Twelve US senators have urged congressional leaders to remove three provisions from a compromise defence bill that would expand defence technology cooperation and intelligence sharing with Israel.

"As you prepare to conference the Fiscal Year 2027 National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA), we respectfully urge you to exclude three provisions from the final bill that would further entrench concerning aspects of the US-Israel defence and intelligence relationship at a time when the Israeli government's actions are increasingly undermining US interests and values," the lawmakers wrote in a joint letter on Tuesday.

The senators, including Chris Van Hollen, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, argued that the disputed clauses would "constrain the Administration's ability to independently determine how best to protect US national security" and lock Washington into indefinite commitments despite Israel's genocide in Gaza, its actions in the occupied West Bank and the wider region.

The letter particularly targets Section 1217 of the Senate Armed Services Committee bill and Section 219 of the House-passed measure, which mandate establishing a "United States-Israel Defence Technology Cooperation Initiative."

The programme would accelerate bilateral co-production, technology transfers and joint research across artificial intelligence, quantum computing, cyberwarfare, biotechnology and autonomous systems.

Lawmakers warned that Washington does not routinely share or co-produce technologies in these sensitive warfare domains, even with treaty allies such as NATO members.

They emphasised that President Donald Trump already possesses authority under existing statutes to negotiate bilateral accords without a congressional mandate.

Warning of Israeli leverage

The senators stressed that deep integration would hand Israel leverage over American military assets.

They pointed to the Israeli government's prior use of co-production terms on missile defence to block the transfer of American Iron Dome batteries to Ukraine, warning that the initiative would embed Israeli technology into the American defence industrial base and make future policy shifts costly.

The letter also noted that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu openly claimed credit for the framework to shift defence ties "from aid to partnership."

The senators cautioned that this strategy seeks to replace transparent Foreign Military Financing channels with opaque defence acquisitions, particularly after Netanyahu boasted about seeking a confrontation with Iran for decades, a war that lawmakers characterised as a "strategic disaster" for American interests.

The coalition also demanded excluding Section 618 from the intelligence authorisation title, which mandates expanding intelligence sharing with Israel while prohibiting the executive branch from suspending, reducing, or materially limiting that cooperation.

Tying the president's hands from adjusting intelligence sharing would be "irresponsible," the lawmakers argued, particularly after public disclosures revealed that the Defence Intelligence Agency recently elevated the counterintelligence threat from Israel to its "highest level."

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Photo: AP Archive