The US armed Israel’s genocide. Nations responded by embargoing Israel. Citing those restrictions, the US may now send even more weapons to Israel.
US Defense Bill Woold Fill Israel’s Weapons Gap Caused by Embargoes
Prem Thakker / Zeteo & Dave DeCamp / Antiwar.com
(December 8, 2025) — The annual defense bill moving through Congress would put the United States on the hook to fill in any “gaps” that Israel may have after other countries responded to its war crimes with arms embargoes.
Since Israel launched its genocidal war in Gaza in 2023, several nations – including Japan, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, and Spain – have moved to enact various arms embargoes against Israel. The US, which has supported, supplied, and financed Israel’s assault, could now help backfill any weapons that Israel may be missing, under the defense bill released Sunday night.
A provision buried deep in the proposed National Defense Authorization Act calls for the “continual assessment of [the] impact of international state arms embargoes on Israel and actions to address defense capability gaps.”
The measure can be found more than 1,000 pages into the 3,000-page NDAA. The bill is considered a piece of must-pass legislation, and is expected to move quickly. The massive bill typically passes with bipartisan support. …
A US C-17 Globemaster sits loaded with THAAD support equipment being sent to Israel
Measure To Protect Israel From Global Arms Restrictions Tucked Into $900 Billion NDAA
An amendment in the mammoth spending bill requires the US to review the impact of global arms embargoes on Israel and ‘fill gaps’
Dave DeCamp / Antiwar.com
(December 8, 2025) — A new measure to bolster weapons supplies for Israel and protect it from global arms restrictions is tucked into the massive $900 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.
