The US House of Representatives has rejected an amendment that sought to remove a provision from the annual defence bill aimed at integrating American and Israeli military forces to an unprecedented degree.
Representative 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 on Thursday.
"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.
'To our benefit'
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 Representative 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 Defence to designate an "executive agent" responsible for synchronising cooperative efforts between the US and Israel, including bilateral defence 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 recent polls showed that the US public's sympathy for Israel has hit a historic low following Tel Aviv's two-year genocide in Gaza.
Israel has killed nearly 73,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and wounded over 173,000 in Gaza. Analysts say it is an undercount and the actual death toll could be around 200,000.
Israel, which occupies over half of Gaza and plans to expand its occupation to 70 percent, has reduced most of the besieged enclave to ruins and displaced almost all of its population.
