Report: IDF Volunteer Mast a Candidate for Army Secretary; Wore IDF Uniform to GOP Meeting

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll’s resignation because of his squabbles with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has invited the usual speculation about his replacement.

One candidate is a man who volunteered for the Israel Defense Forces, and once wore an IDF uniform in the halls of Congress: GOP Representative Brian Mast of Florida.

The possibility has undoubtedly alarmed MAGA supporters who say Mast’s work with the IDF disqualifies him for the post.

Mast Serves Israel

An Army combat engineer, Mast was a bomb disposal technician who worked with Army Rangers in Afghanistan. In 2010, he was clearing a path for his comrades when he stepped on an improvised explosive device that blew off his legs. He wears the Bronze Star and Purple Heart.

To his credit, he remained on active duty while recovering. He segued to the Department of Homeland Security, received a degree from far-left Harvard University, then “volunteered to serve alongside the Israel Defense Forces to show support for the freedom Israel represents throughout the Middle East and the world.”

Reporting on his election to Congress, Jewish Insider reported that for Jewish voters, “the icing on top is that Mast volunteered with the Israel Defense Force[s] (IDF) in January 2015, packing medical kits at a military base near Tel Aviv.”

Mast spoke to Jewish Insider about his reason to volunteer for the IDF:

I grew up in a Christian home and Christian school my whole life. I was always raised for support of Israel. It was certainly always part of my household. That doesn’t mean that I always knew why that was the case. It was just the way that I was raised. But, there was actually a very specific catalyst for me going and serving with Israel. This goes back to 2014. I was injured in 2010. This was after I was injured and out of the army. I am studying up in Cambridge and we lived right next to the Boston Commons. That summer was Operation Protective Edge, there were a lot of protests going on around the country, people that were protesting Israel for defending itself from the barrage of rocket attacks. I didn’t agree with those that were protesting Israel. It seemed completely hypocritical especially those in the U.S. I said that if any of our neighbors were firing rockets into the U.S. like that, guys like me would go and kill them immediately and every American would be proud of us for doing so for defending our country in that way so it seemed like a very hypocritical, double standard.

The catalyst was one specific night when all of these protests were going on, there were people out in the Boston commons and they started saying things to me and my family, harassing us about me being a U.S. service member which really, really struck me. It was that moment that it really sank in the parallel that exists between the United States and Israel and what we represent: those things that unfortunately become all too cliche to say, but it’s very serious to say that we do represent freedom, democracy and human rights for all people.

As the Times of Israel explained in a headline about Mast’s candidacy, “Pro-Israel US Army vet runs for Congress — on prosthetic legs.”

On October 13, 2023, he wore an IDF uniform to a House GOP caucus meeting for discussion about a new House speaker.

“What’s with your threads today? Can you tell us anything about those?” a reporter asked Mast as he left the powwow. “Tlaib’s got her flag, I’ve got my uniform,” he replied. 

Far-left Democrat Rashida Tlaib of Michigan is a Palestinian activist who flies her homeland’s flag outside of her office.

No Army Secretary Should Wear a Foreign Uniform

Mast arrives as a candidate for Army’s top post thanks to the resignation of Driscoll, who bailed after “months of tension” with Hegseth “over the direction of the service and the ouster of numerous senior Army officers,” The Wall Street Journal reported.

“Driscoll’s departure would leave the Army without a Senate-confirmed leader,” the newspaper previously reported:

Hegseth fired Gen. Randy George as the Army’s chief of staff in April without explanation, and President Trump hasn’t nominated a replacement. Gen. Christopher LaNeve, the Army vice chief who was formerly Hegseth’s senior military aide, is serving as acting Army chief of staff.

Driscoll and his family this summer moved out of the large family house reserved for the Army secretary at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, a military post adjacent to Arlington Cemetery where several top defense officials live, the people said. His family relocated to North Carolina over the summer. Driscoll moved into a smaller apartment on base.

Independent journalist Nick Sortor, who disclosed Mast’s candidacy on X, fumed about the congressman’s possible elevation to the one of the most significant Cabinet posts and senior positions in the U.S. national security combine.

“NO. ABSOLUTELY NOT,” Sortor raged on X:

NOBODY wearing a foreign uniform should EVER take control of the US Army.

I know powerful people will lash out at me over reporting this, but I don’t care. I cannot in good conscience ignore this possibility.

I don’t give a damn WHICH foreign Army someone volunteers in. It could be Santa Claus’ Army for all I care. That DISQUALIFIES you from leading AMERICAN forces.

The possibility of Mast as Army secretary comes at a particularly perilous time for the armed forces. The 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, which passed the House but not the Senate, contains a provision to merge the U.S. and Israeli militaries.

The measure gives Israel — notorious for hostile espionage against the United States, its main benefactor — unprecedented access to U.S. national-security secrets. 

As well, the measure would give Israel virtual control of the U.S. military apparatus by expanding that nation’s ability to strong-arm American politicians into acting on Israel’s behalf.

The merger will “give the Israeli government the opportunity to greatly expand one of the most powerful levers of influence in U.S. politics: jobs in the U.S,” Ben Freeman of Responsible Statecraft explained:

By expanding or starting new co-production facilities like it already has in Mississippi and Arkansas, the Israeli government could boast of providing jobs on U.S. soil, thereby securing allies among members of Congress who represent the districts where those jobs lie.

The result could well be a U.S. political system even more susceptible to the whims of an Israeli government that seemingly has no qualms about drawing the U.S. into military conflicts in the Middle East.

The idea for the merger came directly from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a letter to Israel-first GOP Representative Marlin Stutzman of Indiana. Netanyahu called it “my plan.”