What makes the US-Israel military merger arrangement in both the House and Senate versions of the FY27 National Defense Authorization Act unique is that this is the first time such an arrangement has been mandated by law.
“The U.S. government has certainly engaged with other allies, particularly the UK and Australia, to expand defence cooperation and joint research, but never under a congressional mandate,” Josh Paul, a former State Department official who resigned in October 2023 because of the Biden administration’s handling of Israel’s assault on Gaza, told Middle East Eye. “If this was something that the US government wanted to do or US industry wanted to do, it could already be doing it. There’s no law against it. What you have here is essentially a political decision to require it... [and) to identify Israeli technologies to build into US platforms. Those are both unique,” he added.
