Profiting Off War: Israeli Missiles Line Senators' Wallets
11 Senators Including Lead Republican Appropriator Collins Invest In Israeli War Effort
This week, the Senate will likely debate more military funding for Israel — the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance since World War II according to the Congressional Research Service.
11 senators will directly profit off of any additional funding to some of the publicly traded, military-industrial complex companies that help supply parts of the Iron Dome, military aircraft and other resources to Israel for the war.
Five sit on the Appropriations committee aka the 28 people — in times of a functioning budget and appropriations process — who are in charge of directing the government’s funding aka taxpayer’s money.
Most of the Iron Dome was designed and manufactured by Israeli companies like state-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. However, the U.S. has spent at least $3 billion on the development and procurement of the system according to the excellent John M. Donnelly from CQ.
1. Raytheon: RTX 0.00%↑
Raytheon produces components for the Tamir interceptor missiles used in the Iron Dome system, and their Stunner missile is used in the David’s Sling missile defense system. The following senators (or their spouses) all reported ownership of Raytheon stock in their annual reports:
Shelley Moore Capito, R-WV, Appropriations committee member.
Thomas R. Carper, D-DE
Susan M. Collins, R-ME, Appropriations committee’s vice chair.
John W. Hickenlooper, D-CO
Markwayne Mullin, R-OK purchased stock on Sept. 13, 2023.
Gary C. Peters, D-MI, Appropriations committee member.
Sheldon Whitehouse, D-RI
2. Boeing: BA 0.00%↑
Boeing supplied Israel with bombs last week according to Bloomberg. The company also manufactures the KC-46A Pegasus multirole tanker and part of the Arrow III High Altitude Missile Defense System.
The following senators (or spouses) owned stock in the company:
Bill Hagerty, R-TN, Appropriations committee member.
Jerry Moran, R-KS, Appropriations committee member.
Tim Scott, R-SC
Carper
Collins
3. Lockheed Martin: LMT 0.00%↑
Lockheed Martin is the main manufacturer of F-35 joint strike fighters. Israel just expanded its fleet by 50% with a purchase in June 2023.
The following senators (or spouses) owned stock in the company:
Tommy Tuberville, R-AL
Capito
Whitehouse
Editorial note: This analysis was based on the annual financial disclosure reports for the calendar year 2022 and any updated information publicly disclosed since then. Senators may have traded some of these stocks but not reported the transactions yet in compliance with the reporting rules that generally take at least 45 days to become public.
Also, this list is not comprehensive as senators collectively reported over 7,700 assets in their reports including many mutual funds which could likely include some investments in the companies mentioned above.