Follow us on social

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene

MTG moves to cut aid to 'nuclear armed' Israel

The GOP lawmaker says Tel Aviv has its defense, ‘under control’ without further US help

Reporting | QiOSK

As Israel’s war on Gaza slogs on, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R- Ga.) wants to cut U.S. military aid to Tel Aviv.

Indeed, Greene submitted an amendment to the 2026 Department of Defense Appropriations Act, which provides annual funding for DoD operations, that would strike $500 million in proposed additional military assistance for Israel.

“Nuclear armed Israel’s national debt is under $400 Billion compared to our crippling national debt of $37 TRILLION,” Greene explained on X. “Nuclear armed Israel seems to have their defense and debt under control, so the American taxpayers should not be required to give Nuclear armed Israel another $500 million in our U.S. defense bill.”

Greene told Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast that the U.S. already gives Israel billions each year for its defense systems. “This is not a helpless country, and we already give them $3.4 billion every single year in the state — from the State Department. $3.4 billion every single year,” she said. “They don’t need another $500 million in our defense budget.”

Greene’s amendment would repeal section 8067 of the 2026 Department of Defense Appropriations Act, which would provide $500 million to Israeli cooperative programs — at the heart of Israel’s aerial defense operations.

Of the proposed $500 million in aid Greene wants to block, $60 million would go toward Israel’s Iron Dome air-based defense system. Additional funds intended for Israel’s ballistic missile defenses and missile defense architecture are also on the chopping block.

Greene’s amendment to target additional military aid to Israel follows Israel’s so-called “twelve day” war on Iran, where the U.S. struck Iran in an effort to target its nuclear facilities. Greene has spoken against U.S. involvement in that conflict.

And the amendment comes amid ongoing negotiations between the Trump administration and the Israeli government regarding Gaza, where Israel has killed at least 57,000 Palestinians since October 7, 2023. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff suggested a 60 day ceasefire in Gaza could come by the end of this week, but that has not materialized.

Notably, Greene told Steve Bannon Wednesday that “it’s important to say nuclear-armed Israel, because they do have nuclear weapons.” Israel is indeed widely understood to have nuclear weapons, though Israel nor the U.S. acknowledge their existence and American politicians rarely discuss them. Israel is not a party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The House Committee on Rules will consider the Department of Defense Appropriations Act with Greene’s amendment on July 14.


Top Image Credit: Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) holds a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol following a private visit to the Holocaust Museum, to express contrition for previous remarks about Jewish people, in Washington, U.S. June 14, 2021. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Reporting | QiOSK
Recep Tayyip Erdogan Benjamin Netanyahu
Top photo credit: President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Shutterstock/ Mustafa Kirazli) and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Salty View/Shutterstock)
Is Turkey's big break with Israel for real?

Why Israel is now turning its sights on Turkey

Middle East

As the distribution of power shifts in the region, with Iran losing relative power and Israel and Turkey emerging on top, an intensified rivalry between Tel Aviv and Ankara is not a question of if, but how. It is not a question of whether they choose the rivalry, but how they choose to react to it: through confrontation or peaceful management.

As I describe in Treacherous Alliance, a similar situation emerged after the end of the Cold War: The collapse of the Soviet Union dramatically changed the global distribution of power, and the defeat of Saddam's Iraq in the Persian Gulf War reshuffled the regional geopolitical deck. A nascent bipolar regional structure took shape with Iran and Israel emerging as the two main powers with no effective buffer between them (since Iraq had been defeated). The Israelis acted on this first, inverting the strategy that had guided them for the previous decades: The Doctrine of the Periphery. According to this doctrine, Israel would build alliances with the non-Arab states in its periphery (Iran, Turkey, and Ethiopia) to balance the Arab powers in its vicinity (Iraq, Syria, and Egypt, respectively).

keep readingShow less
Havana, Cuba
Top Image Credit: Havana, Cuba, 2019. (CLWphoto/Shutterstock)

Trump lifted sanctions on Syria. Now do Cuba.

North America

President Trump’s new National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM) on Cuba, announced on June 30, reaffirms the policy of sanctions and hostility he articulated at the start of his first term in office. In fact, the new NSPM is almost identical to the old one.

The policy’s stated purpose is to “improve human rights, encourage the rule of law, foster free markets and free enterprise, and promote democracy” by restricting financial flows to the Cuban government. It reaffirms Trump’s support for the 1996 Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act, which explicitly requires regime change — that Cuba become a multiparty democracy with a free market economy (among other conditions) before the U.S. embargo will be lifted.

keep readingShow less
SPD Germany Ukraine
Top Photo: Lars Klingbeil (l-r, SPD), Federal Minister of Finance, Vice-Chancellor and SPD Federal Chairman, and Bärbel Bas (SPD), Federal Minister of Labor and Social Affairs and SPD Party Chairwoman, bid farewell to the members of the previous Federal Cabinet Olaf Scholz (SPD), former Federal Chancellor, Nancy Faeser, Saskia Esken, SPD Federal Chairwoman, Karl Lauterbach, Svenja Schulze and Hubertus Heil at the SPD Federal Party Conference. At the party conference, the SPD intends to elect a new executive committee and initiate a program process. Kay Nietfeld/dpa via Reuters Connect

Does Germany’s ruling coalition have a peace problem?

Europe

Surfacing a long-dormant intra-party conflict, the Friedenskreise (peace circles) within the Social Democratic Party of Germany has published a “Manifesto on Securing Peace in Europe” in a stark challenge to the rearmament line taken by the SPD leaders governing in coalition with the conservative CDU-CSU under Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Although the Manifesto clearly does not have broad support in the SPD, the party’s leader, Deputy Chancellor and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil, won only 64% support from the June 28-29 party conference for his performance so far, a much weaker endorsement than anticipated. The views of the party’s peace camp may be part of the explanation.

keep readingShow less

LATEST

QIOSK

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.