Prominent attorney and legal scholar Alan Dershowitz mourned the death of U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, describing him as a close personal friend, a major advocate for Israel in Washington and a political figure he said would be impossible to replace.
“The important point is he’ll never be replaced,” Dershowitz said in an interview in the ynet studio. “He was a great American, a great senator, a great congressman before that, and a great friend of Israel and a great friend of peace.”
Alan Dershowitz recalls Sen. Linsey Graham in an interview in the ynet studio
(Video: Yaron Brenner)
“It’s a sad day. I will really miss Lindsey Graham,” Dershowitz added. “He became a friend of mine. We started out as enemies.”
Dershowitz recalled that the two first met during the impeachment proceedings against former President Bill Clinton, when Graham was a congressman involved in the effort to impeach him and Dershowitz served as one of Clinton’s defense lawyers.
“We met sitting across the table when he was a congressman trying to impeach Clinton and I was a lawyer trying to defend him,” he said. “But then we became good friends, particularly over Israel.”
Dershowitz said he spent time with Graham in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Washington, and described him as a committed supporter of the U.S.-Israel relationship.
“He believed in Israel to the depth of his heart,” Dershowitz said. “He didn’t agree with every single policy of every single government, every single day — who does? But he loved Israel, and he loved America, and he thought that the Israel-America relationship had to be kept strong for the benefit of both countries.”
Calling Graham “a great man” and “a nice man, a funny man,” Dershowitz said the senator was able to maintain relationships across party lines.
“He got along very well with everybody, but he was Israel’s best friend,” he said. “He and half a dozen other people were Israel’s best friends in the United States Senate, and nobody will ever replace him.”
Dershowitz said Graham’s support for Israel was rooted in principle rather than religious ideology.
“He’s smart and he’s honest, and if you’re smart and you’re honest, you support Israel,” he said. “He did not support Israel because of any evangelical religious views — that maybe because of Israel, the Messiah will return. No, he just loved Israel. He loved the people of Israel. He loved the IDF.”
Lindsey Graham believed strongly in military deterrence and 'peace through strength'
(Photo: Efrem Lukatsky/AP)
Dershowitz said Graham believed strongly in military deterrence and “peace through strength.”
He also warned that support for Israel in the United States has become increasingly polarized, especially within the Democratic Party.
“America is moving toward extremes, the way the world did in the 1930s,” Dershowitz said. “Either you’re a fascist or you’re a communist. In America, the middle is disappearing. To some extent that’s happening in Israel today as well, but not to as great an extent as it is in the United States.”
Dershowitz noted that Graham became one of President Donald Trump's trusted confidants despite being critical of him early on. He said Trump often turned to Graham when he needed help communicating with Democrats.
“He was the man that Trump called when he was having problems with a Democrat,” he said. “And he would say, ‘Lindsey, talk to your friends. I don’t talk to them, but you talk to them.’ And Lindsey Graham would talk to Democrats and sometimes managed to turn them around.”
He added that, in the days before his death, Graham was pressing Trump to take a harder line on Iran.
“Just before he died, Lindsey Graham was pushing Trump very hard to finish the job in Iran, not to let Iran off the hook, not to allow them simply to open up the straits or to end their nuclear program,” Dershowitz said. “I think he was a strong supporter of ending the Iranian regime, which is the only way to guarantee peace in the Middle East.”
it would be appropriate for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to attend Graham’s funeral, since they were great friends, Dershowitz says
(Photo: Ma'ayan Toaf/GPO)
Dershowitz said he last spoke with Graham “probably a couple of months ago,” and that he often saw him during visits to Israel. “I always enjoyed seeing him in Israel, and we had some good times together there and in Washington as well,” he said.
He said that it would be appropriate for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to attend Graham’s funeral, though it would depend on Netanyahu’s schedule and security priorities.
“At any minute, obviously the United States could call on Israel to help in the war against Iran,” he said. “But Netanyahu and Senator Graham were great friends, and I think Senator Graham would be very pleased to know that his funeral was attended by somebody he respected as much as he respected Prime Minister Netanyahu. So I hope he comes.”
Dershowitz said conspiracy theories circulating online should be examined. “I think it has to be looked into,” he said. “There was a fatwa basically out on him. He was on the same list that President Trump is on, the same list that Netanyahu is on.”
He added, “Any death of any pro-Israel person has to be looked at. We know that the enemies of Israel and the enemies of America know how to give heart attacks to people. That’s something that’s medically possible.”
Dershowitz said that after the October 7 Hamas massacre Graham was deeply disturbed by what he saw as the inability of many in the international community to mourn Israeli victims without immediately criticizing Israel.
“He understood how deep the hatred by some bigots of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people,” he said. “They couldn’t even memorialize the so many people who were killed, captured, kidnapped and raped. So many in the world couldn’t even memorialize that. They had to attack Israel, and he felt very strongly about that.”