Congressman Thomas Massie says Israel’s merger with the US military constitutes a loss of US sovereignty
News Desk, The Cradle, JUL 30, 2026
(Photo credit: Israel Defense Forces)
Israel is pursuing a long-term strategy to enmesh itself within the US military, intelligence, and defense establishment, fearing that a collapse in US public support for Israel could otherwise jeopardize billions in future US aid, Capital & Empire reported on 30 July.
According to a new US intelligence assessment, “Israeli officials believe the political fight over Israel in the United States is becoming harder to win, and that the era of indefinitely securing billions of dollars in annual military aid is coming to an end.”
Israeli officials are therefore seeking ways to embed the Israeli military within the US military in “ways future administrations would struggle to unwind,” according to an assessment described to Capital & Empire by US officials.
Currently, Israel receives military aid from the US that must be approved annually through transparent votes by lawmakers in Congress and the Senate.
But the collapse in public support in the US for Israel following the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza that started in October 2023 has put such future US military aid to Israel in jeopardy.
The assessment, written primarily by the CIA, discusses expanding intelligence cooperation with Israel and hosting a permanent US military base on Israeli territory.
It says Israeli officials have been grooming prominent US tech executives to build long-term political and financial support for the effort.
Israel has been advancing this agenda since earlier this year, lobbying lawmakers to pass the $1.1-trillion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
The NDAA includes Section 219, which integrates US military intelligence and the defense industrial base with the Israeli military.
The House of Representatives passed a version of the bill on 22 July. The bill now heads to the Senate, where it must be approved before it is sent to US President Donald Trump for his signature.
The vast majority of Democratic lawmakers in the House voted against the bill, as public shows of support for Israel are becoming a political liability.
However, six House Democrats, Henry Cuellar, Don Davis, Jared Golden, Vicente Gonzalez, Adam Gray, and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez joined Republicans to vote for the bill, just enough to allow it to pass.
Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who lost in a Republican primary for re-election in May in part due to the Israel lobby, called Section 219 of the NDAA “a betrayal of our sovereignty.”
Earlier this year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed he wanted to end Israel’s reliance on US military aid.
However, the assessment states that the CIA believes that Netanyahu made such statements as part of a plan to replace highly unpopular “foreign aid with deeper, longer-lasting forms of military and industrial integration.”
“From Israel’s perspective, embedding the alliance more deeply within the US national security apparatus would make it far more difficult for future administrations to pressure Israel by slowing or withholding arms transfers,” Capital & Empire wrote.
During former US president Joe Biden’s term, Secretary of State Antony Blinken needed to take several emergency measures to ensure that US bombs kept flowing to Israel as it perpetrated the genocide of Palestinians.
Providing US military aid to Israel as it committed war crimes in Gaza was not only unpopular among Biden’s Democratic base, it was also illegal under US law.
Blinken moved ahead with the bomb shipments, which helped Israel’s Air Force kill tens of thousands of children, despite public backlash.
About 60 percent of US adults now hold an unfavorable view of Israel, according to an April Pew Research Center survey.
An Economist/YouGov poll published on 28 July found that 49 percent of US citizens said Netanyahu should be taken into custody if he sets foot on US soil while subject to an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant, whereas only 27 percent said he should not be. Netanyahu visited the White House earlier this week.
If the NDAA is passed with section 2019 included, Israel will not risk future US politicians buckling to public pressure to end the arms flows it needs to continue the genocide in Gaza and bombing and ethnic cleansing of southern Lebanon.
According to the intelligence assessment, Israeli officials also want Israeli technology, intelligence, and weapons systems to be embedded within the US military itself, making the US increasingly reliant on Israel.
The assessment says Israeli officials want to convince US officials and lawmakers that Israel is a “model ally” whose relationship with the US is mutually beneficial, rather than a liability.
According to some reports, Israel played a key role in dragging the US into its current war with Iran. Israel is no longer participating directly in the war, which is highly unpopular in the US and costing taxpayers some $2 billion a day.
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