Primaries Roundup; Republican Plan To Backdoor Israel Aid w/ Ben Freeman | MR Live

Ben Freeman details a new legislative provision, just four pages long, inserted into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This provision aims to integrate the US and Israeli military-industrial complexes through co-production, licensing agreements, and direct collaboration across various defense domains like AI, cyber, and missile defense. Critically, it includes 'network integration' and 'data fusion,' which cybersecurity experts warn would create an irreversible merger of military data, making it impossible to unwind.

Ben Freeman states, 'What this does is it takes all of that the the openness of it and it puts it into this defense integration model which would effectively try and merge to a very significant extent the Israeli military industrial complex within the US military industrial complex.' He adds that 'network integration and data fusion' means 'we are going to embed our military's data with Israel's data and that's just a process you can't unwind.'

The proposed integration would fundamentally change how US military support flows to Israel. Instead of the current $4 billion annual military assistance package, which is subject to congressional vote and public scrutiny, this new model would grant Israel direct access to the vast, uncapped Pentagon contracting budget. This move is interpreted as a strategic attempt by Netanyahu and the Israel lobby to circumvent growing public and political opposition to traditional aid by embedding funding within the opaque Department of Defense bureaucracy.

Freeman explains, 'The aid model was capped at that, you know, 3.8, 3.9 billion figure. This model would be limitless.' He adds, 'This would allow Israel to get a huge chunk of that pie. So, it's not clear exactly how much we're talking here but I think it's fair to say it would be significantly more US taxpayer dollars going to Israel and Israeli firms under this new model.' Sam Seder notes, 'The reason why you bury it in this way as opposed to do aid is so that you don't have to actually make it a political question anymore.'

Despite a generally muted primary day for progressives nationally, some notable victories emerged. Dr. Adam Hamou secured an impressive win in New Jersey's 12th District, a reliably Democratic area, and is expected to become a sitting congressman. In Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed is showing strong polling and increased 'general election readiness' in his Democratic primary, demonstrating a polished campaign approach.

Sam Seder reports, 'Dr. Adam Hamou... pulled out a an impressive win in New Jersey.' He later notes, 'Abdul El-Sayed is pulling away. McMorrow is dropping like a lead balloon... Sayed has um the inside track um in this uh Michigan uh Democratic primary.'

During an interview, Abdul El-Sayed eloquently articulated the distinction between Judaism, Jewish people, and Jewish culture, and the policies of AIPAC and the Israeli government. He emphasized that criticizing the Israeli government's actions, such as 'backstopping apartheid and genocide,' does not equate to anti-Semitism, drawing a parallel to his own critique of the Egyptian government despite his Egyptian heritage.

Abdul El-Sayed states, 'It's really important for us to be able to differentiate between Judaism, the Jewish people, Jewish culture, Jewish contributions to this country which are vast and AIPAC and Israel. Those are two different things.' He adds, 'I don't want my tax dollars being spent to backstop backstop apartheid and genocide when they could be used to provide things like glasses or healthcare or schools for our own kids.'