US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) held a press conference on Wednesday during his visit to Jerusalem to discuss the current situation in the Middle East.
“We have to find a way to end the fighting and start the peace," the Senator opened.
"I was just in Saudi Arabia, this was my eighth trip since October 7th. I am hopeful, but I am not naive. The difficulty of achieving normalization after October 7th is extraordinary. I think Iran’s worst nightmare is for the Arab world to make peace with Israel and move together toward the light,” he added.
Regarding the International Criminal Court's arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, he warned: “You could be a close ally — Canada, Britain, France — you name it. If you buy into this [ICC] arrest warrant as legitimate, then you’re going to meet stiff bipartisan resistance in America. So to the world: If you empower this folly at the ICC, then you will have a hard time doing business in America and coming to America. Why? Because we have no better ally than Israel.
“I openly ask member nations: Are you claiming the ICC has jurisdiction over the American President or Secretary of Defense if allegations of wrongdoing are levied? I can’t get an answer to that question. I need an answer to that question.”
Turing to Israelis, Graham pledged: "To my friends in Israel: You have my promise and commitment to talk to President Trump very soon about my idea in conjunction with Senator Cotton and others — including Democrats — to pass sanctions in the Congress to be signed by President Trump, hopefully, that would sanction any country that took action against Israel because we’re next. I am confident that my legislation sanctioning countries that would enforce arrest warrants against the State of Israel would pass overwhelmingly in the Senate and House.”
The Senator concluded by laying out a condition that in his opinion must be fulfilled for Israel to be able to have peace with the Palestinian Arabs: "I believe the transformation of the Palestinian world is required for Israel to be able to live in peace with its neighbor. Transformation of the Palestinian world is required for a young Palestinian to have any hope at all because if Hamas comes back, we’re right back where we started.”