Global

Supporters of Israel have inserted language in the current US National Defense Authorization Act  (NDAA) that would deeply intertwine the US and Israeli militaries. The language commits to bilateral research and development, co-production of weapons, joint ventures, licensing agreements and an unprecedented integration of the US and Israeli weapons industries. This was spurred by declining public support for ending US military aid to Israel due to Israeli atrocities in Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank, and the fact that the MOU for the $3.9 Billion that US provides to Israel expires in 2028.

The NDAA’s section 224, entitled “United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative,” would arguably do more to intertwine the U.S. military with the Israeli military than the more than $200 billion (inflation adjusted) in military assistance Israel has received from the U.S. since its founding in 1948.

Hello, my name is Mahmoud El‑Yousseph. I am a retired U.S. Air Force veteran and a 50‑year resident of central Ohio.

I am writing to urge you — U.S. Representative Joyce Birdson Beatty and Senators Bernie Moreno and Jon Husted — to take immediate action in response to the escalating violence against Palestinians in the Israeli‑occupied West Bank.

In recent weeks, Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and settlers have intensified attacks on Palestinian communities, including the killing of seven‑month‑old Sam Abu Haikal, who was shot and killed by the IDF while riding in a car with his parents near Hebron.

The Leahy Laws prohibit the U.S. government from providing military assistance to foreign security forces that are credibly implicated in gross human rights violations, including torture and extrajudicial killings. Israel meets these criteria.

Israeli Settler Violence Is Increasing in the West Bank

In memory of my late sister, Cornelia Louise Williams, a veteran of the United States Army, I write this as a call to action. We stand at a moment where the legacies of our ancestors and the rights of those currently serving are being systematically challenged. The erasure of identity is not just happening in our military; it is happening to our very history. ​

The Targeted Exclusion in Our Ranks ​

The current atmosphere in the Department of Defense is one of targeted exclusion. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been documented personally intervening to strike the names of multiple female and Black Navy officers from promotion lists, even after they were selected by senior military boards. When leadership is allowed to target officers based on identity rather than fitness to lead, it does more than just hurt careers—it tells every young Black girl aspiring to serve her country that there is no future for her in this administration. ​This agenda of erasure extends to the very history of our service members. 

Israel’s +972 Magazine reports that the Israeli military establishment has launched a training program designed to “influence public consciousness” around the world, with courses aimed at training hundreds of operatives per year in strategies for “actively disrupting or manipulating the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of target audiences.”

Citing a leaked Defense Ministry tender, +972 reports that lecturers in the program are required to hold “doctorates and/or professorships in the fields of influence, consciousness, security and terrorism, mass communication, [or] digital and network communication,” as well as “at least four years of professional experience in the fields of influence [or] influence intelligence in various security organizations.”

It has long been established by experts and scientists that the carbon dioxide in the air and the resultant increase in global temperatures is produced overwhelmingly by fossil fuels. Even some of the major emitters of these climate pollutants have acknowledged as much, though most have not. The Harvard Gazette, among many others, confirmed this (Exxon scientists predicted global warming with 'shocking skill and accuracy,' Harvard researchers say — Harvard Gazette). Here’s are excerpts from the Gazette.

“Projections created internally by ExxonMobil starting in the late 1970s on the impact of fossil fuels on climate change were very accurate, even surpassing those of some academic and governmental scientists, according to an analysis published…in Science by a team of Harvard-led researchers. Despite those forecasts, team leaders say, the multinational energy giant continued to sow doubt about the gathering crisis.”

Last week a federal judge in Alabama ruled that the suffering caused to a prisoner being killed by gas suffocation executions does not rise to the level of being unconstitutional.  The ruling is being appealed, but we know what this means: We must continue to hope and pray for the best, but prepare for the worst.

That's why Death Penalty Action is once again in Alabama, speaking in a church this morning and leading the petition delivery and rally to stop the execution of Jeffrey Lee.

On May 27, 2026, Israel announced it was bombing areas around Tyre, Lebanon, after ordering the forced displacement of the city and surrounding villages south of the Zahrani River, which the IDF declared a “combat zone.”

On June 2, Israeli forces killed Lama Talal Basma, a young Lebanese woman, in a drone strike while she was riding a motorcycle in the town of Ain Baal, near the city of Tyre in southern Lebanon. Lama kept her small kitchen open throughout the war to support and feed her community.