A new measure to bolster weapons supplies for Israel and protect it from global arms restrictions is tucked into the massive $901 billion 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which congressional leaders unveiled on Monday.
Page 1,269 of the roughly 3,000-page document details the new amendment, which requires the US secretaries of war and state, as well as the director of national intelligence, to conduct reviews of the impact of “the scope, nature, and impact on Israel’s defense capabilities of current and emerging arms embargoes, sanctions, restrictions, or limitations imposed by foreign countries or by international organizations.”
The US officials are also required to assess the “resulting gaps or vulnerabilities in Israel’s security posture against shared regional adversaries, such as Iran and Iranian-backed terrorist groups such as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah, and its ability to maintain its qualitative military edge.”
The assessment must be updated at least once every 180 days. The amendment outlines steps the US could take to “mitigate the gaps” caused by global arms restrictions, including leveraging the US’s “industrial base capacity to provide substitute defensive capabilities” and increasing joint research and other forms of military cooperation with Israel.
Since Israel unleashed its genocidal war on Gaza, several states have imposed some restrictions on exporting weapons to Israel, including Spain, Slovenia, Canada, Italy, and several other countries. Germany, Israel’s second biggest arms supplier after the US, briefly imposed a suspension on sending arms to Israel that could be used in Gaza, but it recently reversed the restriction.
The US, which provides Israel with the vast majority of its weapons, has continued to supply military equipment despite the destruction and mass killing of civilians in Gaza. According to Brown University’s Costs of War Project, in the two years following the October 7 attack, the US government spent at least $21.7 billion on military aid to Israel and another $9.65 billion to $12.07 billion on wars in Yemen, Iran, and other military operations in the region in support of Israel.
