1. United States
2. Maine
3. Letter

Keep Expanded U.S.-Israel Defense Cooperation Out of the NDAA I am writing to urge you to support removing Section 1217 from the Senate version of the Fiscal Year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act. Section 1217 would establish a U.S.-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative, in consultation with Israel’s defense minister, to expand and accelerate bilateral defense-technology research, development, testing, evaluation, coordination, and industrial cooperation between the United States and Israel.  This represents a substantial expansion of the institutional framework for bilateral defense-technology cooperation.  This provision comes at a time when American public opinion regarding Israel’s military actions in Gaza has shifted substantially. A July 2025 Gallup poll found that only 32% of Americans approved of Israel’s military action in Gaza, while 60% disapproved—the lowest level of approval Gallup had recorded since it first asked the question in November 2023.  More recently, Gallup’s February 2026 polling found that 41% of Americans sympathized more with Palestinians in the Middle East situation, compared with 36% who sympathized more with Israelis. Although the five-point difference was not statistically significant, it marked the first time in Gallup’s annual measurement since 2001 that Israelis did not hold the lead in Americans’ sympathies.  Given these significant changes in public opinion, a provision creating a new, standing institutional structure for deeper military-technology and industrial cooperation between the United States and Israel deserves dedicated, standalone legislative review and debate— not as part of the annual defense authorization bill, where it is considered alongside a broad range of defense priorities. I ask that you support removing Section 1217 from the NDAA and, if such expanded cooperation is to proceed, require that it be considered on its own merits through separate legislation.