Ep. 2023 - Did America Just Merge Militaries With Israel?

**Michael Knowles** (0:00)
This episode is brought to you by Cardiff, America's favorite small business lender, with over 12 billion funded since 2004, applying under three minutes for same day funding, up to 500,000 at cardiff.co.noles.
Did the House of Representatives just vote to merge America's military with Israel? That is the viral claim about the National Defense Authorization Act. We will get into what the bill does say and what it does not say. Then, Andrew and Tristan Tate's attorney claims the brothers' recent arrest for rape and trafficking on an international conspiracy. And he kind of has a point. He's got a little bit of a point. Also, Secretary of State Marco Rubio weighs in on the campaign to make Vice President JD. Vance the face of Iran diplomacy as President Trump considers vastly expanding this war five months in. I'm Michael Knowles with The Michael Knowles Show.
Welcome back to the show. Big headline. Half of Gen Z says that the support that churches give to the Trump administration is keeping them from going to church. We're here on Honest News about Gen Z going back to church. Headline says, no, the fact that churches support Trump is keeping them from church. The headline is actually totally backwards. We'll get to that. First though, I want to tell you about PureTalk. Go to puretalk.com/knowles. Back to school season means parents everywhere are having the same conversation. When is my kid old enough for a cell phone? The answer is 75 That's a debate, actually, every family has to settle for themselves. But if you do decide it's time, here's one piece of advice. Do not lock yourself into an expensive wireless contract for a teenager. Because preteens and teenagers have a remarkable ability to lose phones, break phones and occasionally make you question every financial decision that you have ever made. That is one of the many reasons that I love PureTalk. Right now, for the first time ever, any PureTalk plan is just 15 bucks a month for your first three months. Any plan.
Do you hear me? Do you hear what I'm saying? You're hearing for some plans. No, for any plan, even their unlimited high-speed data plans, even their top tier plan, 15 bucks a month. And best part, no service contract, no cancellation fee. If the grades mysteriously start slipping or the phone somehow ends up at the bottom of a swimming pool, you're not trapped in some long-term commitment. PureTalk also is veteran-led, backed by 100% U.S.-based customer service. It's got an excellent, excellent service, best hours, for a fraction of what many people are paying. I love it. I've had my PureTalk for like six years now. Go to puretalk.com/knowles, make the switch today, puretalk.com/knowles, to start saving. Is America merging its military with the state of Israel? That is the viral claim on social media. It's a claim going around the mainstream press. There was a big vote yesterday for the National Defense Authorization Act in the House of Representatives. The NDAA passed. The vote was what? 216 to 212 It still hasn't passed the Senate yet. The Senate is going to have to do its own version of the bill.
What do we make of this claim? I just need to wait for my $7,000 to clear from BBNet and Yahoo. Do we have confirmation that my $7,000 is cleared before I give my commentary? No, we don't. Okay, well then I'm going to have to give different commentary.
There are a lot of conspiracy claims. There are a lot of conspiracy claims generally, in part because our government has lied to us, especially during COVID. So, you know, there's some reason for the conspiracy claims. But this is especially true when it comes to the state of Israel. So you have to parse it. You need to make sure that you're actually getting your facts right. What is this over? This is over specifically section 219 There are actually a few other sections of the NDAA that relate to this question, but specifically section 219, which would direct the Secretary of War to create an apparatchik at the Pentagon, an executive agent, to oversee the United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative, so that apparatchik would then coordinate aspects of defense research, development, testing, supply chain, industrial cooperation. Okay, top line takeaway, no, it does not merge the American military with Israel. You're not going to see marines taking orders from Itamar Ben-Gavir or something like that. However, this is a notable provision of the NDAA and it actually does merit some pretty serious debate because what it says at the top level is that the US and Israel will cooperate more on military research and tech development, supply chain and all the rest of it. However, in this case, it would actually give the state of Israel greater military integration priority than some NATO allies. Okay. Israel is obviously not party to NATO. So that is a little strange.