Lindsey Graham’s legacy: Israel advocate, Trump ally, Iran war supporter
Late US senator backed invasion of Iraq, war on Iran and approach of ‘more for Israel’ as he became a Trump confidant. Washington, DC
Late US senator backed invasion of Iraq, war on Iran and approach of ‘more for Israel’ as he became a Trump confidant. Washington, DC – When the devastating Hurricane Helene hit the southeastern shores of the United States in 2024, the late Senator Lindsey Graham appeared on Fox News to discuss the aftermath of the natural disaster in South Carolina. For five minutes, he expressed anger and frustration at what he presented as failures by the administration of then-Democratic President Joe Biden in responding to the hurricane. Then, unprompted, he abruptly shifted the conversation from the woes of his home state to his concern about Israel amid its genocidal war on Gaza. “I’ve been going all over South Carolina. Like most people, I haven’t slept much. But look what’s going on in Israel,” Graham said. “Our friends in Israel, surrounded by people that want to kill them, destroy them, a second Holocaust in the making, and Biden says, ‘Be proportional.’ What is the proportional response to people who want to kill you and your family? They’re running out of ammunition in Israel. We have to help our friends.” The Republican senator, who died of a “brief and sudden illness” late on Saturday, according to his office, seemed to always find a way to stay focused on his hawkish foreign policy advocacy and devotion to Israel. Throughout his decades-long career, Graham backed the 2003 invasion of Iraq, staunchly opposed Russia and China, called for unflinching and unlimited support for Israel, and was one of the most vocal cheerleaders of the war on Iran. Michael Hanna, US programme director at the International Crisis Group think tank, said two elements of Graham’s career will define the late senator’s legacy: his advocacy for military interventions, and his staunch support for President Donald Trump. “He has cultivated over many, many years a reputation for hawkishness and pushing for military solutions to US foreign policy problems,” Hanna said. “He was a major supporter of the Iraq War, and he has been a big booster of the use of military force ever since. That’s very clear. Of course, in the last months now of his life, he’s been very engaged in pushing Donald Trump to use military force against Iran.” After decades of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, many US politicians – including Trump, who promised to be a peace president – avoided appearing pro-war.
Not Graham. He remained uncompromising in favouring military interventions, particularly in the Middle East. Earlier this year, when Graham called on US forces to participate alongside Israel in bombing Lebanon, Republican Congressman Tim Burchett took a jab at the senator’s zeal for military strikes. “Lindsey Graham hasn’t seen a fist fight he hasn’t wanted to turn into a bombing raid,” Burchett told reporters. Pro-Israel views Unconditional support for Israel has been a central tenet for most US foreign policy hawks in the post-9/11 era. And Graham was no exception. The late Republican often made a show in calling for more military aid to the US ally. After a 2021 Israeli assault on Gaza that killed hundreds of Palestinians, Graham headed to Israel and posed next to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a sign that said, “More for Israel”. He then secured an additional $1bn in US military aid for the country. On Sunday, Netanyahu eulogised Graham, saying that the Republican legislator often sought more US support for Israel than his government requested or needed. Netanyahu told Fox News that Graham “went ballistic” when the Israeli prime minister told him that he would push to phase out US military assistance to Israel. “He was so concerned with our security, which he believed was your security, that he actually fought the prime minister of Israel on keeping America’s aid, or actually increasing it,” Netanyahu said. Several Israeli officials, including far-right Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, lauded Graham after his death. At times, Graham’s pro-Israel advocacy turned into outright resentment and dehumanisation of Palestinians. On several occasions, he compared the Palestinian people to Nazis and suggested that dropping a nuclear bomb on them would be justified. “Why is it OK for America to drop two nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end their existential threat war? Why was it OK for us to do that? I thought it was OK,” he told NBC News in 2024. “So, Israel, do whatever you have to do to survive as a Jewish state.” Many of the treaties that make up international humanitarian law were put in place after World War II to prevent the kind of atrocities that occurred in the conflict, including genocide and the use of nuclear weapons. But for Graham, there did not appear to be any limits that Israel could inflict on Palestinians.
The BriefWire