Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham delivered an emphatic defense of Israel on Wednesday night during a South Carolina Republican Party rally, telling the party’s evangelical supporters that the U.S. must continue to stand firmly with its Middle East ally.
Speaking late in the evening, Graham described Israel as “in a fight for their lives,” surrounded by enemies who “would kill them all if they could.” He sharply criticized accusations of genocide against Israel, saying, “If Israel wanted to commit genocide, they could. They have the capability to do that. They choose not to. Hamas… would commit genocide in 30 seconds. They just can’t.”
Graham called Israel Washington's “most reliable friend" in the Middle East and “a democracy surrounded by people who would cut their throats if they could.” He framed U.S. support as both a strategic and moral imperative, telling the crowd, “This is not a hard choice if you’re an American. It’s not a hard choice if you’re a Christian.” He warned, “If America pulls the plug on Israel, God will pull the plug on us. And we’re not going to let that happen.”
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The senator credited President Donald Trump with backing Israel “at the most difficult time since its founding,” calling the October 7 Hamas-led attack “an effort to destroy the State of Israel” and “the largest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust.”
Nearly two years into the war catalyzed by Hamas' deadly onslaught, Graham said, it was “ridiculous” that Israel was being cast as the aggressor. “Israel is not the bad guy. They’re the good guy. The bad guys are the radical Islamists who would kill everybody in this room if they could,” he said.
Graham concluded by likening Trump’s foreign policy to Ronald Reagan’s, praising him for standing up "for all the right things” and against “the wrong things.”