00:00And the U.S. House of Representatives has approved a defense bill that includes a proposal to significantly expand military
00:06cooperation between the United States and Israel,
00:09raising a debate over the future of U.S. military commitments abroad and the political implication of deeper defense integration.
00:15Our correspondent Dan Albright with the details.
00:19The yeas are 216, the nays are 212, the bill is passed.
00:23The U.S. House has passed a defense bill containing a little-noticed plan to dramatically deepen military integration with
00:31Israel.
00:32The initiative would create a dedicated Pentagon mechanism for joint weapons development and production, as well as military information sharing
00:40with Israel.
00:41This would tie the U.S. and Israel together, and it would do it across just about every domain you
00:47can think of in the future of warfare,
00:49from autonomous systems to AI to cyber weapons, quantum, and on and on.
00:55And this would include terms like data fusion and network integration.
00:59So when we say this is really, you know, all but merging the militaries together, this is what we mean.
01:08It also comes as support for Israel is plummeting among the U.S. public,
01:13making billions of dollars in direct military aid increasingly politically contentious.
01:18Netanyahu wants it because he envisions a time when the opposition is such that that big, fat aid vote might
01:26go against him at some point.
01:27Whereas this is going to be integrated in the bowels of the Pentagon, the R&D budget, much less visibility,
01:33much harder to figure out how to stop it.
01:36The initiative would not have to be renewed each year.
01:39Its dedicated Pentagon office and jointly developed supply chains could continue unless Congress affirmatively dismantles them.
01:46This will go on in perpetuity unless Congress passes legislation actually to undo it.
01:53Much more critically, you'd have to undo all of these intertwined supply chains.
01:59Boston peace advocate Jeff Klein says U.S. citizens are responsible for changing the policies they finance.
02:05What's encouraging to me is that people have moved from the streets to the electoral arena.
02:13Protests are a means to an end, and the end is changing U.S. policy.
02:17And if it means changing the personnel who are establishing that policy, then that's what's got to happen.
02:23And we're seeing that happen.
02:24The House passed its defense bill 216 to 212.
02:28The full Senate has not yet voted.
02:31The chambers would then negotiate a final bill, leaving another opportunity to alter or remove the proposal.
02:37From Boston, Dan Albright, Telesor English.
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