Arms for Normalization: How S. 4219 Uses Defense Cooperation to Bypass Palestinian Self Determination
What Are the Abraham Accords?
The Abraham Accords are agreements between countries that did not have official diplomatic relationships with the State of Israel to normalize relations in exchange for a range of military and economic incentives provided by the United States. . It is important to recognize that the Abraham Accords are not peace agreements, as none of the signatories were at war with each other, a distinction that is often ignored when the Accords are discussed. Nonetheless, several members of Congress seek to expand the Abraham Accords beyond their original scope by increasing the sweeteners for Arab states.
For Israel, the Abraham Accords provide the obvious benefits of expanding its economic and political influence in the region. For Arab states, the calculus is far more complex. This complexity stems from a foundational issue: the reason normalization has not occurred between most Arab states and Israel is Israel's policies that deny Palestinian self-determination, and which make Israel deeply unpopular with Arab publics. That creates three core problems: (1) The Abraham Accords undermine Arab efforts at democratization by targeting incentives that are sufficient to regimes to ignore public pressure; (2) The Abraham Accords increase regional militarization because the incentives the U.S. offers and delivers include weapons and intelligence support; and, (3) the ultimate impact of the Accords is to weaken one of the few remaining pressure points on Israel to pursue a just and lasting peace with the Palestinians - i.e. pressure from its neighbors.
Incentivising Ignoring Palestinians
A new bill in Congress, S. 4219, the Abraham Accords Defense Cooperation Act of 2026, introduced by Senator Ted Budd (R-NC) and co-sponsored by Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA), seeks to build a regional defense architecture around the normalization framework of the Abraham Accords. Rather than grounding regional security cooperation in shared defense interests alone, the bill explicitly ties military cooperation to normalization with Israel, further pursuing militarized and antidemocratic policies over public interests and Palestinian rights. Notably, the bill's definition of eligible countries extends beyond the original Abraham Accords signatories to include any Arab or Muslim-majority country that has sought to normalize relations with Israel since 2020 (a rather limited list that would include Sudan), making clear that the bill is designed to pull new countries into the framework, not simply reward existing ones. Specifically, S. 4219 seeks to enhance the following long-term regional capabilities:
Counter-unmanned aircraft system capabilities
Ground-based air defenses
Theater ballistic missiles and cruise missiles
Intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, and tactical command and control
Special operations forces development
Joint air or naval military exercises
In the press release, Senators Bud and Ernst argue that S. 4219 serves a legitimate strategic purpose: deterring Iranian aggression and the activities of Iranian proxies across the Middle East. That has been a concern shared by the United States and its Arab partners alike. But Arab states already have strong incentives to cooperate with each other to deter Iran through existing bilateral agreements and regional frameworks, incentives that exist entirely independent of their relationship with Israel - and in any event, what Sudan and Kazakhstan could contribute to such efforts is unclear. What S. 4219 does is make U.S. military regional integration contingent on normalization with Israel, using the threat of Iran as cover for an architecture that is fundamentally about expanding Israel’s influence at the expense of the future of the Palestinians and ultimately regional democratization and stability.
Rewarding Aggression Against American Interests
The timing of this bill is especially concerning. The situation in the West Bank is deteriorating rapidly: the Israeli government recently approved 34 illegal settlements, passed a law explicitly permitting the death penalty for Palestinians, and Israeli settlers are increasingly committing acts of terrorism against Palestinians in the West Bank, acts that have resulted in the deaths of American citizens, with no accountability for the perpetrators. Meanwhile, America’s Arab partners have borne the brunt of Iranian counterattacks, with many of their citizens killed and their economies devastated by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and strikes on energy production. Lebanon has been ravaged by Israeli strikes, with thousands of Lebanese civilians killed in what human rights organizations have characterized as indiscriminate bombardment modeled on the destruction of Gaza. In southern Syria, Israel is expanding its military presence and actively displacing Syrian civilians by demolishing homes and destroying farmland. And in Gaza, the situation remains dire: Israel now militarily occupies roughly 58 percent of the territory, and the Israeli Defense Forces continue conducting strikes throughout the enclave in violation of the ceasefire, killing Palestinian civilians.
Creating integrated regional defense cooperation structures is not inherently problematic, structures like NATO or programs like the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI) stand as examples of countries building regional defense frameworks on shared interests, values, and mutual cooperation. But S. 4219 seeks to establish the foundation for such an agreement at a moment when Arab states are at their weakest point in decades, a condition brought about by the actions of the United States and Israel. S. 4219 is designed to begin transforming the Abraham Accords from a diplomatic initiative into a militarized framework, one that deliberately undermines the rights and freedoms of Arab publics only in order to serve the objective of undermining the rights and freedoms of the Palestinian people. In doing so it threatens to further extend instability in the region, and therefore constitutes not only a violation of American values - but also of U.S. interests.
