Company: Amazon.com, Inc. 1
Jurisdiction: UNITED STATES (Delaware, 19808) 1
Sector: E-commerce, Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Digital Streaming 2
Leadership:
Intelligence Conclusions:
Amazon.com, Inc. was founded in 1994 by Jeffrey P. Bezos.3 An investigation of Bezos’s early life, education, and founding capital reveals no specific or direct ideological or financial ties to Israel, pro-Israel networks, or Zionist ideology.14 The company’s origins are firmly rooted in e-commerce and Wall Street financial technology applications.14
Assessment: Amazon’s complicity with the Israeli state is not an “original sin” of its founding. It is a calculated, strategic, and mature-stage development, pursued for clear economic and technological advantage. This complicity is driven almost entirely by its dominant and most profitable subsidiary, Amazon Web Services (AWS), which CEO Andy Jassy formerly led.4
Assessment: The appointment of General Alexander in September 2020, as Amazon was in the final stages of bidding for the $1.2B Israeli military-intelligence contract 5, is a deliberate, strategic governance move. Alexander is not just any general; he is the face of the American mass surveillance state (the “Snowden-era” NSA) 25 and a public proponent of US-Israel cyber-partnerships.22 Placing him as Chair of the Security Committee 3 was a high-level signal to the Israeli “defense establishment” that Amazon operates with a shared ethos, mitigating security concerns and embedding a “revolving door” operative within its core governance. This appointment was likely instrumental in securing the Project Nimbus contract in April 2021.
Amazon’s presence in Israel is deep, strategic, and focused on AWS.
Assessment: Amazon is not merely “operating” in Israel; it is economically integrated with and structurally dependent on the Israeli high-tech ecosystem for its core global business. The $7.2B investment and the $1.2B military contract are mutually reinforcing.
Assessment: The contradiction is profound. Amazon’s public human rights policies are demonstrably a public relations facade, nullified by its contractual obligations to the Israeli military and its internal suppression of employees who cite those same policies.
| Date | Event | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | AWS begins its AWS Activate program in Israel. | Establishes early-stage integration with the Israeli startup ecosystem, a key talent and acquisition pipeline.9 |
| 2014 | AWS opens its first R&D center and office in Israel. | Marks the beginning of a permanent, physical R&D and economic presence in the country.10 |
| 2015 | Amazon acquires Israeli chipmaker Annapurna Labs for ~$370M. | Key Strategic Event. This acquisition forms the basis of AWS’s proprietary hardware (Graviton, Nitro), making Amazon’s global business structurally dependent on Israeli R&D.10 |
| 2019 (Jan) | Amazon acquires Israeli cloud backup startup CloudEndure for ~$200M. | Continues the pattern of “innovation harvesting” from the Israeli tech sector to build AWS’s global portfolio.30 |
| 2019 (July) | Amazon acquires Israeli flash storage startup E8 Storage. | Further deepens AWS’s technological integration with Israeli-developed IP.30 |
| 2019 | Amazon offers free shipping to Israel, including illegal West Bank settlements, while excluding Palestinians. | A direct corporate action that economically subsidized and normalized the illegal occupation, treating settlements as part of Israel.39 |
| 2020 (Mar) | Amazon reverses its discriminatory settlement shipping policy. | Demonstrates corporate responsiveness to negative public relations, not proactive ethical due diligence.39 |
| 2020 (Sep) | Gen. (Ret.) Keith B. Alexander, ex-NSA Director, joins Amazon’s Board. | A major governance shift, aligning Amazon’s security posture with the US-Israel surveillance state in the run-up to the Nimbus bid.3 |
| 2021 (Apr) | Israeli gov’t selects AWS and Google for the $1.2B Project Nimbus contract. | The Core Military Contract. Provides advanced cloud/AI services to the “government, the defense establishment, and others.”5 |
| 2021 (Oct) | 300+ Amazon employees (with Google employees) publish an anonymous letter condemning Project Nimbus. | Marks the beginning of sustained, organized internal dissent against the company’s military complicity.41 |
| 2022 (Apr) | Amazon (via its Industrial Innovation Fund) invests in Israeli autonomous robotics startup BionicHIVE. | Demonstrates continued, active financial investment in the Israeli tech ecosystem.42 |
| 2023 (Aug 1) | AWS officially launches its Israel (Tel Aviv) Region. | A massive infrastructure deployment, necessary to fulfill the Nimbus contract’s local data-hosting requirements.10 |
| 2023 (Aug) | Amazon announces a $7.2 billion investment plan in Israel through 2037. | Signals a massive, long-term strategic and economic commitment to the State of Israel, tied to the AWS region.9 |
| 2023 (Oct 10) | CEO Andy Jassy posts on X, calling the “attacks against civilians in Israel… shocking and painful.” | A one-sided leadership statement that ignores Palestinian suffering and aligns the corporation with the Israeli state’s narrative.20 |
| 2023 (Dec) | Over 1,700 Amazon employees petition CEO Jassy to end Project Nimbus. | A significant escalation of internal pressure, explicitly linking the contract to the repression of Palestinians in Gaza.18 |
| 2024 (July) | IDF Col. Racheli Dembinsky (Mamram unit) publicly confirms the army’s use of AWS in the Gaza war. | The “Smoking Gun” Confirmation. An active IDF commander states AWS AI and storage are being used for “operational effectiveness” in Gaza, calling the cloud a “weapons platform.”7 |
| 2025 (Sep) | Amazon suspends Palestinian engineer Ahmed Shahrour for protesting Nimbus. | A direct, punitive corporate action to silence dissent and protect the Nimbus contract, demonstrating clear ideological alignment.12 |
| 2025 (Oct) | Leaked Nimbus contract details reveal “secret code” data-sharing and waiver of terms-of-service. | Confirms Amazon conspired with the Israeli gov’t to bypass legal norms and contractually agreed to facilitate military use.6 |
No specific, non-incidental pro-Israel or Zionist-linked ideological capital has been identified in the provided research. The user’s directive to exclude broad-market institutional investments (e.g., Vanguard, BlackRock) is noted. The complicity demonstrated in this report is not driven by shareholder ideology but by corporate strategy.
The provided data shows Amazon and Bezos-linked PACs donate heavily, with a preference for Republicans, but not specifically to pro-Israel lobbying groups like AIPAC.16
The absence of significant, direct corporate PAC donations to AIPAC is a critical finding. A common model of corporate complicity is “lobbying,” where companies donate to groups like AIPAC to gain political favor. The data does not show this for Amazon. Instead, it shows a far deeper model: direct economic integration. Amazon does not need to lobby for Israel’s favor; its $7.2B investment, its reliance on Annapurna Labs for its global hardware, and its $1.2B military contract make it a core partner. This is structural complicity, not transactional complicity. It is more robust, more permanent, and more serious than a simple PAC donation, as the company’s own profitability is now tied to the success of the Israeli tech-military state.
| Date | Event | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | AWS begins its AWS Activate program in Israel. | Establishes early-stage integration with the Israeli startup ecosystem, a key talent and acquisition pipeline.9 |
| 2014 | AWS opens its first R&D center and office in Israel. | Marks the beginning of a permanent, physical R&D and economic presence in the country.10 |
| 2015 | Amazon acquires Israeli chipmaker Annapurna Labs for ~$370M. | Key Strategic Event. This acquisition forms the basis of AWS’s proprietary hardware (Graviton, Nitro), making Amazon’s global business structurally dependent on Israeli R&D.10 |
| 2019 (Jan) | Amazon acquires Israeli cloud backup startup CloudEndure for ~$200M. | Continues the pattern of “innovation harvesting” from the Israeli tech sector to build AWS’s global portfolio.30 |
| 2019 (July) | Amazon acquires Israeli flash storage startup E8 Storage. | Further deepens AWS’s technological integration with Israeli-developed IP.30 |
| 2019 | Amazon offers free shipping to Israel, including illegal West Bank settlements, while excluding Palestinians. | A direct corporate action that economically subsidized and normalized the illegal occupation, treating settlements as part of Israel.39 |
| 2020 (Mar) | Amazon reverses its discriminatory settlement shipping policy. | Demonstrates corporate responsiveness to negative public relations, not proactive ethical due diligence.39 |
| 2020 (Sep) | Gen. (Ret.) Keith B. Alexander, ex-NSA Director, joins Amazon’s Board. | A major governance shift, aligning Amazon’s security posture with the US-Israel surveillance state in the run-up to the Nimbus bid.3 |
| 2021 (Apr) | Israeli gov’t selects AWS and Google for the $1.2B Project Nimbus contract. | The Core Military Contract. Provides advanced cloud/AI services to the “government, the defense establishment, and others.”5 |
| 2021 (Oct) | 300+ Amazon employees (with Google employees) publish an anonymous letter condemning Project Nimbus. | Marks the beginning of sustained, organized internal dissent against the company’s military complicity.41 |
| 2022 (Apr) | Amazon (via its Industrial Innovation Fund) invests in Israeli autonomous robotics startup BionicHIVE. | Demonstrates continued, active financial investment in the Israeli tech ecosystem.42 |
| 2023 (Aug 1) | AWS officially launches its Israel (Tel Aviv) Region. | A massive infrastructure deployment, necessary to fulfill the Nimbus contract’s local data-hosting requirements.10 |
| 2023 (Aug) | Amazon announces a $7.2 billion investment plan in Israel through 2037. | Signals a massive, long-term strategic and economic commitment to the State of Israel, tied to the AWS region.9 |
| 2023 (Oct 10) | CEO Andy Jassy posts on X, calling the “attacks against civilians in Israel… shocking and painful.” | A one-sided leadership statement that ignores Palestinian suffering and aligns the corporation with the Israeli state’s narrative.20 |
| 2023 (Dec) | Over 1,700 Amazon employees petition CEO Jassy to end Project Nimbus. | A significant escalation of internal pressure, explicitly linking the contract to the repression of Palestinians in Gaza.18 |
| 2024 (July) | IDF Col. Racheli Dembinsky (Mamram unit) publicly confirms the army’s use of AWS in the Gaza war. | The “Smoking Gun” Confirmation. An active IDF commander states AWS AI and storage are being used for “operational effectiveness” in Gaza, calling the cloud a “weapons platform.”7 |
| 2025 (Sep) | Amazon suspends Palestinian engineer Ahmed Shahrour for protesting Nimbus. | A direct, punitive corporate action to silence dissent and protect the Nimbus contract, demonstrating clear ideological alignment.12 |
| 2025 (Oct) | Leaked Nimbus contract details reveal “secret code” data-sharing and waiver of terms-of-service. | Confirms Amazon conspired with the Israeli gov’t to bypass legal norms and contractually agreed to facilitate military use.6 |
The financial data reveals a multi-billion-dollar strategy of deep, long-term economic integration. The relationship is not passive; it is a calculated, strategic investment in Israel’s tech ecosystem (via acquisitions and R&D) and its state-military apparatus (via Project Nimbus). The $7.2B capital expenditure 9 and the $1.2B Nimbus contract 5 are mutually reinforcing: the contract requires the local data centers, and the data centers are economically justified by the massive, long-term government contract. This demonstrates active, high-level collaboration.
Goal: To establish that Amazon, through Project Nimbus, is a direct, knowing, and contractually-bound partner to the Israeli military and intelligence apparatus, and that this partnership is being actively used in the 2023-2025 war on Gaza.
Evidence & Analysis:
The evidence for Amazon’s direct military complicity is overwhelming and rests on four pillars: the contract, the terms of the contract, the testimony of the end-user, and the application of the technology.
1. The Contract: Project Nimbus is a $1.2 billion contract awarded in April 2021 to Amazon (AWS) and Google.6 It provides an “all-encompassing cloud solution” for the Israeli “government, the defense establishment, and others”.5 The inclusion of the “defense establishment” as a stakeholder from the project’s inception confirms, at minimum, that this is a direct military-intelligence contract. This is not a case of an incidental military end-user; the military was a planned client from the start.
2. The “Waiver of Ethics” Clause (Pre-meditated Intent): This is the primary prosecutorial evidence of intent. Leaked documents from the Israeli Finance Ministry reveal that to secure the contract, Amazon submitted to “highly unorthodox ‘controls'”.6 The most critical clause contractually forbids Amazon from denying service to any particular entities of the Israeli government, including its military.5 Furthermore, it prohibits the companies from restricting how Israel uses their products, even if this use breaches their own terms of service.6
This clause is a pre-meditated contractual waiver of human rights due diligence. Amazon did not simply fail to conduct due diligence; it signed a contract that makes such diligence legally impossible and would constitute a breach of contract. This demonstrates a deliberate, a priori corporate decision to facilitate military/intelligence use, regardless of any potential violations of international law. It is the legal and contractual embodiment of “knowing” complicity and renders any public-facing human rights policy 37 null and void.
3. The “Conspiracy to Obstruct” Clause: The leaked contract also details a “secret code” or “winking mechanism”.44 This provision obliges Amazon to secretly notify Israel if a foreign court orders the company to hand over data.6 The mechanism involves sending a specific monetary amount (e.g., 1,000 shekels for a US-based request, 3,900 shekels for an Italian-based request) as a coded signal.45 This demonstrates a conspiracy between Amazon and the Israeli state to circumvent and obstruct international legal processes, effectively shielding its client from external legal accountability.
4. The “Smoking Gun” — Direct IDF Confirmation of Use in Gaza: This moves the analysis from contractual to operational complicity. On July 10, 2024, Col. Racheli Dembinsky, commander of the IDF’s Center of Computing and Information Systems unit (Mamram), publicly confirmed at an “IT for IDF” conference that the Israeli army is actively using civilian cloud and AI services in its ongoing war on Gaza.7
5. The Application — Mass Surveillance and Targeting: Investigative reports, citing security sources, detail how AWS is being used. The IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate uses AWS servers to store “masses of intelligence information…on almost everyone in Gaza”.8 This “endless storage” is used for mass surveillance (e.g., storing billions of audio files) and has provided “supplementary information” ahead of airstrikes.8
Counter-Arguments & Assessment:
Analytical Assessment: High Confidence. Amazon is a direct, contractual, and operational partner in the Israeli military’s AI-driven surveillance and targeting system. The company knew its services would be used by the military, contractually agreed to waive its own ethical objections, and its services are currently being used to enhance the “operational effectiveness” of the IDF in its war on Gaza.
Named Entities / Evidence Map: T009 (Nimbus Contract), T012 (AWS Region Launch), T016 (IDF Confirmation), T018 (Leaked Contract Terms), E001 (Israeli Gov’t), E002 (IDF), E003 (IDF Mamram), E005 (Google), E010 (Col. Dembinsky).
Intelligence Gaps:
Goal: To demonstrate that Amazon’s complicity is not limited to a single contract (Nimbus) but is a deep, long-term, structural economic alignment, making Amazon’s global business strategy dependent on the Israeli tech ecosystem.
Evidence & Analysis:
1. Massive Capital Investment: Amazon has committed to a $7.2 billion investment in Israel through 2037.9 This is not a passive portfolio investment; it is a direct capital expenditure to build, maintain, and operate the AWS Israel (Tel Aviv) Region.34 This infrastructure is the physical backbone required to service the Project Nimbus contract, which mandates that data be “keep[t] information within Israel’s borders”.5 The $1.2B contract and the $7.2B investment are therefore inextricably linked. The contract provides the anchor tenant and economic justification for the massive infrastructure build-out.
2. Strategic R&D Integration (The “Annapurna Dependency”): This is the most critical structural tie, which provides the motive for Amazon’s military partnership. In 2015, AWS acquired Israeli chipmaker Annapurna Labs for ~$370M.10 Annapurna is not a siloed R&D center; it is the core developer of Amazon’s proprietary, high-performance hardware that powers AWS globally. This includes:
Amazon’s primary competitive advantage in the multi-trillion-dollar cloud market is its custom-built, cost-effective hardware. This proprietary hardware is what allows AWS to offer better performance at a lower price than competitors (like Microsoft Azure) who often rely on third-party chips (like Intel or Nvidia). This globally-critical hardware is developed by Annapurna Labs, its Israeli subsidiary.10
Therefore, Amazon’s global cloud dominance and profitability are structurally dependent on its R&D wing in Israel. This creates a powerful, self-perpetuating incentive structure. Amazon cannot afford to alienate the Israeli government or “defense establishment,” which fosters the tech ecosystem (and supplies ex-IDF intelligence officers) that Annapurna hires from.
This dependency makes Project Nimbus not just a $1.2B opportunity, but a strategic necessity to protect its far more valuable R&D pipeline and its long-term, $7.2B infrastructure investment. This is a deep, non-incidental economic alignment.
3. Pattern of “Innovation Harvesting”: The Annapurna acquisition was not an isolated event. It was followed by the acquisitions of CloudEndure (2019) for cloud migration 32 and E8 Storage (2019) for flash storage.31 This demonstrates a pattern of Amazon (AWS) using the Israeli tech market as an external R&D lab, acquiring key technologies and integrating them into its global services. Amazon’s Industrial Innovation Fund has also continued this pattern, investing in Israeli robotics startups like BionicHIVE in 2022.42
Analytical Assessment: High Confidence. Amazon’s business model is structurally and economically dependent on its R&D and acquisitions from the Israeli tech ecosystem. This alignment is not passive or incidental; it is a core strategic dependency that pre-dates and reinforces its willingness to enter into military contracts like Project Nimbus.
Named Entities / Evidence Map: T001 (AWS Activate), T002 (R&D Centers), T003 (Annapurna), T004 (CloudEndure), T005 (E8 Storage), T011 (BionicHIVE), T012 (AWS Region), T013 ($7.2B Investment), E002 (AWS Region), E003 (Annapurna Labs), E004 (CloudEndure), E005 (E8 Storage).
Intelligence Gaps:
Goal: To establish that Amazon’s leadership and corporate governance demonstrate a deliberate political alignment with the US-Israel military-surveillance complex and that its internal policies are weaponized to suppress Palestinian voices to protect its Israeli state contracts.
Evidence & Analysis:
1. Governance – The “Revolving Door” (Gen. Keith B. Alexander): The most significant evidence of political alignment is the 2020 appointment of Gen. (Ret.) Keith B. Alexander to Amazon’s Board of Directors.11 Alexander is the former Director of the NSA and US Cyber Command 11, and was the face of US mass surveillance exposed in 2013.25 His appointment, just before the Nimbus contract was finalized, is a strategic political act. He was then made Chair of the Security Committee.3 Alexander has a history of speaking at Tel Aviv security conferences (including those hosted by Team8, a firm founded by ex-Unit 8200 officers) and promoting US-Israel cyber-cooperation.22 This appointment embeds the architecture of the US-Israel surveillance state directly into Amazon’s corporate governance, creating a high-trust “revolving door” that legitimizes and de-risks military-intelligence contracts.
2. Leadership Ideology (CEO Andy Jassy): CEO Jassy (who formerly ran AWS) set the corporate tone on October 10, 2023, with a one-sided statement on X (formerly Twitter) condemning the “shocking and painful” attacks on “civilians in Israel,” with no mention of Palestinians.20 This was not a neutral humanitarian statement. Only after significant internal pressure, including a 1,700-person petition 18, did he send a Thanksgiving email acknowledging “lost lives in Israel and Palestine”.18 This demonstrates a default pro-Israel stance, tempered only by public relations damage control.
3. Corporate Policy – Suppression of Palestinian Dissent (The “Shahrour Precedent”): This is the most “prosecutorial” evidence of ideological alignment. Amazon has actively suppressed pro-Palestinian employee speech.38
4. Corporate Policy – Normalization of Occupation: In 2019, Amazon’s e-commerce platform instituted a shipping policy that offered free shipping to illegal West Bank settlements but excluded adjacent Palestinian towns.39 This policy treated the settlements as a de jure part of Israel, providing a direct economic subsidy and normalization of the illegal occupation. While reversed after public outcry 39, it establishes a clear precedent of pro-occupation corporate policy.
Analytical Assessment: High Confidence. Amazon’s governance (Alexander), leadership (Jassy), and internal policies (the suppression of Shahrour) demonstrate a clear and active political and ideological alignment with Israeli state and military interests, prioritizing its military contracts over employee rights and stated human rights principles.
Named Entities / Evidence Map: T006 (Settlement Policy), T007 (Policy Reversal), T008 (Alexander Joins Board), T010 (Employee Letter), T014 (Jassy Statement), T015 (Employee Petition), T017 (Shahrour Suspension), E006 (Gen. Alexander), E009 (Andy Jassy).
Intelligence Gaps:
Purpose: To expose the ecosystem that connects Amazon to pro-Israel, military, and surveillance structures, demonstrating that its complicity is not isolated but part of a mutually beneficial network.
| Name | Type | Role / Link |
|---|---|---|
| Israeli Gov’t (Min. of Finance) | State Actor | Client (Nimbus); Contract signatory. |
| Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) | State Actor (Military) | End-user (Nimbus); “Defense establishment” stakeholder. |
| IDF Mamram (Computing Unit) | State Actor (Military) | Operational User (AWS); Confirmed use of AWS AI/storage in Gaza war. |
| Annapurna Labs | Acquired Subsidiary | Core AWS hardware developer (Graviton, Nitro); Locus of structural dependency. |
| Corporate Partner | Co-contractor (Project Nimbus); Jointly complicit in contract terms. | |
| Gen. (Ret.) Keith B. Alexander | Individual | Amazon Board Member (Chair, Security Committee); Ex-NSA/CYBERCOM Head. |
| CloudEndure | Acquired Subsidiary | AWS service provider; Example of “innovation harvesting.” |
| E8 Storage | Acquired Subsidiary | AWS service provider; Example of “innovation harvesting.” |
| Andy Jassy | Individual | Amazon CEO; Former AWS CEO; Key decision-maker on Nimbus. |
| Col. Racheli Dembinsky | Individual | IDF Commander (Mamram); Provided public confirmation of AWS use in Gaza. |
E006 – Gen. (Ret.) Keith B. Alexander (Amazon Board Member)
General Alexander represents the “revolving door” that fuses Amazon’s corporate governance with the US-Israel military-intelligence apparatus. As the former Director of the NSA and Commander of US Cyber Command 11, he is one of the world’s most powerful and recognizable surveillance-state figures. His 2020 appointment to Amazon’s board, and specifically his role as Chair of the Security Committee 3, is a strategic move. His public record includes participation in high-level Israeli cybersecurity forums (like Team8’s “Rethink Cyber” event in Tel Aviv, an organization founded by ex-IDF Unit 8200 officers) 24 and advocating for deep, public-private US-Israel cyber-cooperation.22 His presence provides Amazon with unparalleled credibility and access when bidding for and servicing high-stakes military-intelligence contracts like Project Nimbus. He is the human embodiment of Amazon’s political alignment with the surveillance state.
E004 – Annapurna Labs (Amazon Subsidiary)
Annapurna is the lynchpin of Amazon’s structural economic complicity. Acquired in 2015 for ~$370M 30, this Israeli chipmaker is not a minor R&D office; it is the core developer of AWS’s most critical proprietary hardware. This includes the AWS Graviton (CPU) and Inferentia/Trainium (AI) chips, and the AWS Nitro System that underpins all modern AWS infrastructure.10 This makes Amazon’s global competitive advantage and profitability dependent on its Israeli R&D wing. This “Annapurna Dependency” creates a powerful, non-negotiable incentive for Amazon’s leadership to maintain a positive, collaborative relationship with the Israeli state and its “defense establishment,” from which Annapurna recruits talent.
E002/E003 – Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) / Mamram Unit
The IDF is the confirmed end-user of Amazon’s services for military purposes. While the Nimbus contract named the “defense establishment” 5, the July 2024 testimony of Mamram Commander Col. Racheli Dembinsky provides a direct, public, and unambiguous link. Dembinsky confirmed the IDF’s internal “weapons platform” was overloaded and that it is currently using AWS for its “operational effectiveness” in Gaza.7 This entity transforms Amazon’s complicity from a future, contractual risk into a current, operational reality.
Methods:
The intelligence in this dossier was collected and cross-verified using multiple OSINT methods.
Verification:
The central prosecutorial claims are verified using a “triangle” of evidence, where a claim is supported by at least three different types of sources:
This methodology ensures that the report’s conclusions are not based on a single source or allegation, but on a documented pattern of corporate behavior, intent, and operational reality.
Analytical Rationale:
This analysis adheres strictly to the user’s mandate to focus on direct, strategic, or intentional relationships. The assessment of Annapurna Labs as a “structural” tie, for example, is based on its documented, non-incidental role in developing Amazon’s core global technology. The report’s “prosecutorial” nature is derived from building a logical case where Amazon’s actions (e.g., signing the Nimbus contract, appointing Gen. Alexander, suspending Mr. Shahrour) are presented as evidence of intent to materially support and align with the Israeli military-intelligence apparatus.