House Defeats Bid To End Israel Aid While Senate Blocks US-Israel Intel Integration

The U.S. House on Wednesday rejected an amendment by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) that would have eliminated $3.3 billion in annual U.S. military aid to Israel, voting 314–104 to defeat the proposal.

As Tom Gantert reports for The Epoch Times, the vote exposed divisions within the Democratic Party, with 103 Democrats joining Massie in support of the amendment, while 98 Democrats voted against it and 10 voted present. Massie was the only Republican to vote in favor of the amendment.

“Though my amendment to strike $3.3 billion in aid to Israel from the State Dept Approps bill did not pass, 104 House Members voted in favor of it,” Massie said on X.

“The tide is changing. Americans want their tax dollars to be spent improving things here at home, not waging war and genocide.”

The amendment was considered as the House debated the fiscal 2027 State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs appropriations bill.

Before the vote, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) urged lawmakers to reject the amendment, calling it “overly broad” because he said it could restrict funding for humanitarian aid, refugee resettlement, peace-building efforts, and U.S. Embassy operations.

While criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and calling for a “major reset” in U.S. policy toward Israel, Jeffries said the amendment was not the appropriate way to achieve those goals.

“In addition, the so-called Massie amendment would restrict our country’s ability to confront Hamas, Hezbollah, and other terrorist organizations in the region who are sworn enemies of both the United States and Israel,” Jeffries’s letter to his colleagues stated.

Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) made reference to Massie, who lost his primary election to a President Donald Trump-backed candidate in May.

“Very proud of my @HouseGOP colleagues,” Fine posted on X after the vote.

“Today we unanimously repudiated our soon-departing Jew-hating colleague, making clear that standing with our greatest ally is core to America’s interests.”

Fine continued, “It takes a lot of effort to eradicate the green shoots of Jew Hatred that want to infect our party the way they have Democrats. Folks in Washington are learning I won’t allow it.”

Netanyahu said he wants Israel to phase out its reliance on U.S. military aid over the next decade, saying the country has grown strong enough economically and militarily to become more self-sufficient.

Israel currently receives about $3.8 billion annually under a 10-year, $38 billion U.S. assistance agreement that expires in 2028. Netanyahu said ending the financial component of military assistance would reflect Israel’s increasing independence while preserving a close strategic partnership with the United States.

At the same time, Democrats in the US Senate have blocked debate on an annual defense policy bill, objecting not only to President Trump’s war on Iran but also to provisions that would more closely integrate the United States and Israeli militaries.

The motion to proceed failed 50-46, well short of the 60 needed, with votes on strict party lines, and Thune flipping to "no" procedurally to preserve a revote

The NDAA process is where the integration fight lives: Massie is fighting the House version's Section 219, which he says would begin "co-mingling our military supply chains and technology with Israel's"

Reuters reports that the version of the Bill before the Senate has also triggered backlash over measures that would deepen US military and intelligence ties with Israel.

One key provision would require the Pentagon to appoint an official to coordinate between the US and Israel on defence technology.

That would include joint weapons research, production and the integration of each country’s technologies into the other’s military systems.

The provision also controversially calls for “data fusion”, which Human Rights Watch defined in June as combining feeds from multiple sensors and intelligence sources into a single targeting picture.

The group said the arrangement could see the US absorb Israeli intelligence that may have been collected through what it described as problematic mass surveillance programmes.

A separate measure in the 2027 Intelligence Authorization Act, which is usually considered alongside the NDAA, would expand intelligence sharing with Israel.

Democrats framed the block around the war: Schumer said Republicans want the NDAA passed "as though none of this is happening," and Murphy called it flatly "an authorization for the Iran war, a war that nobody in this country wants."

Senate Democrats’ efforts reflect a broader shift within the Democratic Party, where support for Israel has cratered ahead of the November midterm elections. Israel’s favourability rating among Democrats dropped from 59 percent in 2018 to 22 percent in May, according to a June Reuters/Ipsos poll.