From The Lever Daily (16 October 2025)

The US Military Funding of Israel

War crimes subsidized. As displaced Palestinians return to a leveled Gaza amid the Trump administration’s precarious Israel-Hamas “ceasefire,” senators quietly worked through a government shutdown to deliver $914 billion in 2026 military spending. The budget fulfills a number of expensive surveillance and weapons funding requests from the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Through its donor-funded war chest, AIPAC has secured more than $38 billion in U.S. taxpayer-funded contributions toward Israel since Oct. 7.

A weapons bonanza. In a 77-20 vote last week, Senators passed their version of the National Defense Authorization Act, which expands the Pentagon's already outsized annual budget by more than $100 billion — including lucrative subsidies for the Israeli military. That includes $75 million in funding for counter-drone technology, $80 million for anti-tunnel engineering, and $50 million towards “emerging technologies in warfare” like artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and automation.

Research shows that the Israeli military’s use of automated technologies has accelerated the country’s mass killings and surveillance operations — while shirking the moral and legal burden of war to an algorithm.

Secret stockpiles. Also buried deep in the defense budget is a two-year extension of an opaque and unlimited weapons stockpile reserved for Israel — one that the Israeli military can call upon without approval from Congress. The War Reserve Stock for Allies-Israel is “the least transparent mechanism of providing arms to Israel,” a State Department official told Responsible Statescraft, as transfers require a simple sign-off from the Secretary of Defense.

Congress previously capped how much funding the stockpile received per year at $200 million, but a 2024 law temporarily waived that limit.

Bought and paid for. Last election cycle, AIPAC dished out a record $126 million in campaign cash. Recipients on the Senate Armed Services Committee, which helps oversee the annual defense budget, include a top beneficiary of the Israel lobby: Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) accepted $1.8 million in AIPAC funds last election while standing with the minority of Democrats who’ve backed continued arms sales to Israel.

Meanwhile, since 2019, the committee’s leadership, Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-R.I.), have accepted more than $1 million in combined campaign cash from the defense industry, which has reaped millions in Pentagon contracts backing Israel since Oct. 7.