The Steadfast Friend of Israel and the Two-State Paradox
If there was one cause that defined Lindsey Graham’s foreign policy soul, it was Israel. He was, in the words of Prime Minister Netanyahu, “one of its greatest friends”. Graham made numerous wartime visits to the region, championed billions in security aid, and was a vocal advocate for relocating the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. He cosponsored legislation to combat the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and fiercely criticized UN resolutions against Israeli settlements. He backed Israel’s military responses to Hamas attacks, from 2014 through the October 7, 2023, massacre that triggered the war in Gaza. Graham saw Israel not just as an ally, but as the key to regional stability.
Yet, on the question of Palestine, Graham’s position contained a fascinating and often-overlooked nuance. In one of his final interviews, given to the Jerusalem Post at a Republican Jewish Coalition summit, he made a striking admission. Pressed on the future of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Graham declared: “There is no other alternative” to a two-state solution. He reasoned that a one-state solution would “either end Israel as a Jewish state or leave millions without rights, which the world will not accept”. He even concluded that “to be pro-Israel, you need to be honest with Israel”.
Human rights defenders on Wednesday accused U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of “incitement to genocide” after the South Carolina Republican urged Israeli forces to destroy Gaza—and he wasn’t the only prominent GOP figure to make such an incendiary call.
Appearing on Fox News on Tuesday night, Graham asserted that “we are in a religious war here, I am with Israel. Whatever the hell you have to do to defend yourselves; level the place.”
Retired, living in the Scottish Borders after living most of my life in cities in England. I can now indulge my interest in all aspects of living close to nature in a wild landscape. I live on what was once the Iapetus Ocean which took millions of years to travel from the Southern Hemisphere to here in the Northern Hemisphere. That set me thinking and questioning and seeking answers.
In 1998 I co-wrote Millennium Countdown (US)/ A Business Guide to the Year 2000 (UK) see https://www.abebooks.co.uk/products/isbn/9780749427917
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