SC’s Lindsey Graham says Donald Trump’s comments about Israel, Netanyahu are not helpful

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, said the GOP White House hopeful’s comments about Israel and criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week are not helpful.

Instead, Trump should discuss his efforts to help Israel during this four years in office, Graham said.

“I would encourage President Trump to talk about what he did as president to help the Israeli government and people and criticizing Bibi now is not helpful,” Graham said to reporters in Columbia Friday, using the Israeli prime minister’s nickname. “There clearly was an intelligence failure, but we need to be behind Israel without equivocation.”

Graham pointed to Trump recognizing the Golan Heights as part of Israel, declaring Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state and the signing of the Abraham Accords, which normalized diplomatic relations among Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.

South Carolina’s senior U.S. senator is backing Trump’s 2024 bid for the GOP nomination for president and was a close ally during Trump’s one term in office.

Graham’s comments, which he gave standing next to a group of Baptist preachers outside of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce office, on the war between Israel and Hamas come after former President Trump said at a rally Wednesday that Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group that is speculated to join the fighting, is “very smart” and made comments criticizing Netanyahu.

Trump said Netanyahu had pulled out of an operation that killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in 2020. Trump said Israel intended to participate in the raid but then decided to let the U.S. carry it out alone.

Trump this week also said Israel and Netanyahu were unprepared for the attack from Hamas.

Hamas last week attacked Israel, leading to thousands of deaths of Israelis and Palestinians between that surprise attack and the ensuing Israeli strikes on Gaza. Israel is amassing troops along the Gaza Strip preparing for an invasion in an effort to eliminate Hamas. Israel has warned people in northern Gaza to evacuate to the south.

Hamas took hostages during its attack, including Americans.

The U.S. has moved Navy ships in the Mediterranean closer to Israel as a show of force.

Graham said if the war escalates with Hezbollah involvement, the death of hostages or if American soldiers are attacked in Syria and Iraq, the U.S. should go after Iran, which has ties to Hamas.

“If this war escalates, then we should destroy the ability of the Iranians to finance terrorism in the future,” Graham said. “They’re an oil-based economy. Without oil revenue, they stopped being the largest state sponsor of terrorism.”

However, Americans may not have an appetite for another conflict after leaving the 20-year war in Afghanistan.

“I think to those who believe getting out of places make you safer, how much more do I have to do to convince you getting out of Afghanistan led to Russia invading Ukraine? I believe that,” Graham said. “I believe that the weakness we have shown toward Iran led to this. I believe giving billions of dollars to get American hostages out of Iran made Hamas think, ‘Hey, maybe we should do that too.’

“The desire to not engage evil seldom works out well. Iran is evil. I don’t want a war with Iran. But I am tired of Iran financing terrorism all over the globe,” Graham added.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.