Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie team up to strip US-Israel military tech cooperation from defense bill

Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie, representing opposite ends of the political spectrum, have joined forces to challenge a provision in the House's annual defense bill that seeks to expand U.S.-Israel defense technology cooperation.

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If the provision in the NDAA to integrate/synchronize the US and Israeli militaries (section 224) makes it out of committee, I’ll offer an amendment to strip it from the bill on the floor.

Massie, a libertarian Republican from Kentucky, announced his intention to offer an amendment to strip the provision from the National Defense Authorization Act for 2027. The section in question would designate an executive agent responsible for synchronizing cooperative efforts between the U.S. and Israeli militaries, encompassing bilateral defense technology research, development, testing, evaluation, integration, and industrial cooperation.

Khanna, a progressive Democrat from California, quickly aligned with Massie, stating he would also offer an amendment in committee to remove the section. This collaboration marks another instance of the unlikely pairing finding common ground on Israel-related foreign policy, following their previous joint opposition to U.S. involvement in the conflict between Israel and Iran.

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And I will be offering an amendment in the committee itself to strip section 224 out, @RepThomasMassie.

Khanna expressed his support for Massie, lamenting his primary election loss. He credited their bipartisan work on issues like the Epstein Transparency Act and opposition to the war in Iran as reasons for Massie facing political challenges. The alliance underscores a convergence of political extremes on matters concerning Israel within Congress.

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Thomas is a real friend. He’s a good man, and he was taken out for two reasons. One, he had the courage to go after some very powerful people in working with me to get the Epstein Transparency Act passed. As he mentioned, that’s historic bipartisan legislation that finally got justice for the survivors, and he had peo