What specific U.S. agencies and units have documented participation in Israeli training programs since 2010?
Executive summary
Since 2010 a mix of U.S. federal military units, federal law‑enforcement agencies, state and local police departments, and border/security agencies have documented ties to Israeli training programs or joint exercises; reporting identifies specific examples including U.S. Air Force participation in multilateral Israeli exercises and named police agencies and federal agencies that sent officers to Israel or to Israel‑sponsored exchanges [1] [2] [3] [4]. Sources differ in scope and emphasis—advocacy groups and local reporting catalog police exchange visitors and campaigns to end them, while military and pro‑Israel outlets highlight formal joint exercises and congressional funding for cooperative programs—so the public record is strongest for certain units (air force squadrons, named police departments, U.S. federal agencies) and thinner or contested for others (exact rosters and numbers) [1] [5] [4] [6].
1. U.S. military units: joint air and field exercises, named and recurring
U.S. Air Force aircraft and personnel have participated in Israeli-hosted multilateral exercises—Blue Flag (first held in 2013 with U.S. participation) and other multinational training events—and took part in bi‑lateral flying exercises such as Southern Strike and Red Flag where Israeli aircraft or tankers joined missions, documenting formal military-to-military training links since the 2010s [1] [5]. Pro‑Israel policy outlets frame these as routine interoperability drills to address shared threats and cite congressional funding streams for cooperation on programs like counter‑drone and anti‑tunnel work [5].
2. Federal law enforcement: FBI, ICE, Border Patrol and others named in reporting
Multiple reports and advocacy investigations list the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and U.S. Border Patrol among federal agencies whose agents have attended Israel-related exchanges or U.S.-based seminars with Israeli presenters since the 2000s and continuing into the last decade, with specific mentions of FBI‑organized conferences and ICE/Border Patrol participation in exchange trips [3] [4]. Jewish Voice for Peace and allied reporting assert thousands of U.S. federal and local law enforcement officers have been through such exchanges [4], while media reporting catalogs FBI‑sponsored events that included Israeli police briefings [2].
3. Local and state police departments: named departments, programs and cancellations
Reporting names multiple municipal and county police agencies as participants: the New York Police Department is repeatedly cited in longform accounts of exchange activity [7], the St. Louis County Police Department and St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department have been reported as recipients of Israeli training [8], and Prince George’s County leadership has acknowledged multiple international exchanges [2]. Dozens of U.S. police departments across many states have attended ADL, JINSA, or university-run exchange programs; conversely, some localities (Durham, NC; Northampton, MA; Alameda County/Urban Shield) publicly curtailed or banned participation after community pressure [9] [3] [6].
4. Organized exchange programs and sponsors: ADL, JINSA, GILEE, and funding links
Many of the documented exchanges were organized or subsidized by non‑governmental sponsors—the Anti‑Defamation League’s National Counter‑Terrorism Seminar, the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, and the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange (GILEE) are repeatedly named as organizers or facilitators of trips and domestic seminars that brought Israeli trainers to U.S. audiences—while U.S. federal grants (DOJ, DHS) have been tied to some programs such as Urban Shield, which funded international travel including to Israel [2] [7] [6] [3].
5. Caveats, contested claims and implicit agendas in the sources
Advocacy groups (Jewish Voice for Peace, Demilitarize coalitions) emphasize broad totals and list ICE, FBI, sheriffs, and thousands of officers as participants and frame the exchanges as militarizing U.S. policing [4] [9], while pro‑military and policy sources emphasize structured, bilateral military exercises and congressional appropriations for interoperability [1] [5]. The public record reliably documents U.S. Air Force participation in Israeli exercises and named local police departments attending ADL/GILEE trips, but detailed, official rosters for many federal and local delegations since 2010 are uneven in the sources provided and often reconstructed by advocacy research or local reporting rather than centralized government disclosure [1] [2] [4].