JINSA Takes Credit for NDAA Provision Binding US Military Programs to Israel, Discloses Retired-General Pipeline

In August, the Jewish Institute for National Security of America announced that "multiple provisions" in this year's National Defense Authorization Act were "impacted by prior JINSA policy recommendations," including language to strengthen "U.S.-Israel defense industrial base integration" and renew joint U.S.-Israel programs, according to the group's own public statement.

Among the provisions JINSA claims as its own is Section 219. In the House version of the NDAA, the section mandates creation of a single executive agent to "synchronize cooperative efforts" between the U.S. and Israel across nine categories spanning artificial intelligence, quantum technology, biotechnology and nearly every class of weapons system.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described this kind of arrangement as shifting the U.S.-Israel relationship from aid to partnership. Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the pro-Israel Foundation for Defense of Democracies, put the stakes more bluntly in an article that appeared to reference the same push, writing that the two countries must

"deepen their military, technological, intelligence and economic integration to such an extent that inflicting financial harm on Israel would also carry a significant cost for Washington."

JINSA has also pushed to extend the existing War Reserve Stockpile Authority for Israel, a program that functions as a fast channel for moving U.S. weapons stock into Israeli hands, along with Abraham Accords-linked provisions on missile defense acquisition and a proposed U.S.-Abraham Accords defense cooperation initiative.

The pipeline behind the policy wins

JINSA says it achieves these outcomes partly through "educational programs that build ties among American, Israeli and other Middle Eastern partner military leaders." Its "Our People" webpage lists a long roster of retired U.S. military officials tied to the group.

The centerpiece is JINSA's Generals and Admirals Program, running since 1981. The program flies recently retired U.S. military officials to Israel for meetings with the prime minister, the defense minister, the IDF chief of staff, and the director of Mossad. The Helmsley Charitable Trust, which funded a 13-month cycle of the program in 2017 with a $237,846 grant, has described its purpose as having participants "return home to share publicly what they learned."

JINSA CEO Michael Makovsky explained the logic in 2014, calling retired U.S. generals and admirals "America's most admired leaders, who remain very influential even after retirement."

That influence appears to translate into industry ties. Of the 83 alumni from the program's 2019 through 2026 cohorts, at least 55, roughly 66 percent, have held or currently hold positions in the defense industry: board seats, executive roles, advisory posts, or jobs at defense-focused investment funds, consultancies and lobbying firms, according to Responsible Statecraft's analysis of JINSA's own published participant lists.

The pattern tracks with broader findings. A 2023 Quincy Institute report found that 80 percent of four-star officers who retired between June 2018 and July 2023 went on to work in the defense industry. Of 32 officers the Quincy Institute tracked, nine also appear on JINSA's participant lists, and seven of those nine now hold defense-industry lobbying or defense-tech roles.

JINSA has not disputed its own credit-taking for the NDAA language; the group's August statement and its program materials are public. What remains an open question, and a matter for continued scrutiny, is how directly the revolving door between JINSA's officer alumni and defense contractors feeds back into the legislative provisions the group says it shaped.