Rabia İclal Turan
05 June 2026•Update: 05 June 2026
The US House of Representatives on Thursday rejected an amendment that sought to remove a provision from the annual defense bill aimed at integrating American and Israeli military forces to an unprecedented degree.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) introduced the amendment to strip Section 224 from the bill and drew a sharp contrast between the scale of Israeli and American power.
"The American people are tired of the arrogance and insolence of (Israeli) Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu telling America what we should do," Khanna said on the House floor.
"The entire country of Israel has a GDP that is less than a single town in my district, yet somehow Netanyahu thinks he can tell the American people what we should do."
"If you think we should do more for Israel, you should be against my amendment," he said.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers dismissed concerns over foreign influence, saying the "claims that this provision somehow cedes authority to a foreign government are simply ridiculous."
Ranking Member Adam Smith acknowledged frustrations with Netanyahu while defending the provision. "I strongly disagree with the notion that this is Congress just bowing to what Netanyahu wants," Smith said. "This is to our benefit."
Only Rep. Sarah Jacobs (D-CA) joined Khanna. The amendment failed in a voice vote.
"If any other country in the world had been credibly accused of violating US and international law again and again, of killing tens of thousands of civilians of blocking food and medicine from reaching a starving population, we would not be moving to deepen and permanently expand our military tides with them," Jacobs said ahead of the vote.
The measure, known as Section 224 of the FY2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), requires the secretary of defense to designate an "executive agent" responsible for synchronizing cooperative efforts between the US and Israel, including bilateral defense technology research, development, testing, evaluation, integration, and industrial cooperation.
It also calls for joint ventures, licensing agreements, and co-production manufacturing partnerships with Israeli industry as well as joint training exercises and information-sharing mechanisms.
The amendment came as a recent polls showed that the US public sympathy for Israel has hit a historic low following Tel Aviv's two-year genocidal war on Gaza, which killed nearly 73,000 Palestinians and injured more than 173,000, most of them women and children, according to Palestinian figures.
