‘Dumbest Possible Take’: Massie’s Plan Opposing U.S.–Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Gets Support From Democrat Ro Khanna

Congressman Thomas Massie, the recently defeated Republican from Kentucky, says he will use some of his remaining time in the House to try to eliminate a proposed defense technology cooperation initiative between America and Israel — and has won support of a Democrat who chairs a subcommittee of the Armed Services Committee.The initiative they will try to defeat is part of the annual defense authorization bill, the National Defense Authorization Act, that the House Armed Services Committee is due to consider on Thursday. “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,” Mr. Massie threatened in a post on X. “We are a sovereign country.”While Mr. Massie will be in Congress until only January, he has won the support from a Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, Ro Khanna, who said he will offer an amendment to strip the entire section from the bill. “Trump can’t kill the Massie/Khanna partnership no matter how much he posts on Truth Social,” Mr. Khanna posted on X.One of Mr. Massie’s Republican colleagues, Congressman Derrick Van Orden, however, called Mr. Massie’s position the “dumbest possible take.”Mr. Orden writes that it is “Another antisemitic grift from the Costa Rica Kid,” a reference to Mr. Massie’s visit last week to Costa Rica with recently departed Republican congresswoman and vocal Israel critic, Marjorie Taylor Greene. “This security agreement will allow for the US to leverage advanced Israeli technologies. Don’t you have some Epstein names to release Pedo Protector?”Mr. Massie responded sarcastically to ask if the initiative means Americans will now be granted access to “advanced Israeli pagers,” referencing Israel’s use of explosive devices inside of pagers to take out members of Hezbollah in 2024. “I thought you had the mystery list from the Epstein files you were releasing? Did that grift grow old?” Mr. Van Orden asked in response.If enacted, the new technology cooperation initiative would mark a deepening of ties between the American and Israeli militaries, argues the director of the Democratizing Foreign Policy Program at the Quincy Institute, Ben Freeman. Mr. Freeman, whose organization advocates for less military intervention and fewer U.S. foreign policy engagements, wrote in a piece for his organization’s publication, Responsible Statecraft, that the proposal “would provide a higher level of military-industrial integration than the U.S. has with any other country in the world.”“It would fuse the U.S. and Israeli defense sectors in multiple areas vital to the battlefields of the future, like autonomous systems and cyber,” Mr. Freeman writes. However, defense policy analysts say the legislation is not unlike other defense cooperation agreements with allies like the United Kingdom, Japan, and Australia. The language used in the bill is also substantially similar to legislation dating back as far as 1989, when the United States and Israel began working on Iron Dome together. “It literally says cooperation on defense tech, that’s all. Zero fusing, haha. Maybe read the NDAA instead of clickbait headlines,” wrote former CIA targeting officer Sarah Adams. “Too many people are spreading misinformation designed to divide Americans and drive outrage rather than inform. The text has been released and is moving through Congress, which means the spin machines are working overtime.”The draft text of the bill states that the initiative “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.”The portion of the legislation titled the “United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative” calls for an extension by two years of existing cooperation on war reserve stockpiles, anti-tunnel technologies, and unmanned aerial systems. The revised language also calls for cooperation in the areas of artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, cyber warfare, data fusion, directed-energy weapons, and biotechnology. The bill requires the secretary of defense to submit on the first anniversary of its passage an unclassified update of technologies acquired, partnerships established, and progress on the long-term integration of joint capabilities between the United States and Israel.A writer for the Hipster Genius Subtack, Kareem Ahmed, says the alternating dismissals and hand-wringing from both sides obscures legitimate analysis of the legislation.“Section 224 does not authorize a merger of the U.S. and Israeli armed forces, nor does it establish a unified chain of command. What it does propose is a more formal and enduring mechanism for coordinating defense technology development and industrial collaboration,” reads the post. “If enacted in its current form, Section 224 would move U.S.-Israeli military cooperation beyond specific joint programs and toward a standing framework for technological, industrial, and strategic integration.”Mr. Massie won Mr. Trump’s ire last year after he voted against the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and led the effort to force a disclosure of the Epstein files. Mr. Trump quickly got behind a primary challenger to Mr. Massie, Ed Gallrein, who defeated the congressman in the Republican primary earlier this month. Mr. Massie largely blames his loss on outside spending in the race, millions of dollars of which came from pro-Israel groups. He often called out three Jewish billionaires — Miriam Adelson, John Paulson, and Paul Singer — by name for supporting Mr. Gallrein.

‘Dumbest Possible Take’: Massie’s Plan Opposing U.S.–Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Gets Support From Democrat Ro Khanna

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