Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Israeli media at the Israeli embassy in Washington that he trusts the judgement of Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu on accepting the ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas.

“There’s no such thing as a perfect deal,” Graham said, during a ceremony honoring Michael Herzog, the outgoing Israeli ambassador in Washington and brother of Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

In a press gaggle, Graham told reporters that he wasn’t aware of all the details of the agreement, which both the incoming Trump administration and the outgoing Biden administration have claimed as their own major victory.

“I do believe Hamas has been decimated, that people being released from the Israeli jails are less likely to regenerate Hamas now than they were before, that Israel has the right under this deal, as I understand it, to go back in if they need to,” Graham said. “I’m not going to second guess Bibi’s support for this deal.”

A journalist asked Graham about reports that Steve Witkoff, President-elect Donald Trump’s named Middle East envoy, pressured Netanyahu to accept the terms of a deal that the Biden administration crafted.

The president-elect “wanted the Americans and Israelis back,” Graham said. “It’s not just Bibi.”

“The vast majority of Israelis realized they had to do a deal with a terrorist group to get their people back,” he added. “Anytime you’re dealing with a terrorist group, it’s not easy. Your choices were to just forsake the hostages and keep fighting, or try, after you decimate Hamas, to get them back.”

Trump was “moved” by relatives of the hostages when he met with them, according to Graham.

“He’s a very human-focused individual. He does not like pain. He is strong. You don’t want to trifle with Trump, but he understands the pain and the suffering,” the senator said. “We all met with the hostages, and I feel like, on balance, this was the best way to get them out.”

Graham is a strong proponent of the push for normalized relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia and has made multiple trips to the region meeting with leaders to try to make progress on the issue.

JNS asked the senator if there is a worry that Trump, if indeed he pressured Netanyahu to sign the deal, might do the same with a deal with Saudi Arabia, which has demanded a Palestinian state in exchange for normalization.

“I think what’s going to happen here is that the market right now for a Saudi deal is very difficult. The Democrats have no political cover,” Graham said. He told JNS that it will be “a tough sell to our Democratic friends to vote for a treaty sponsored by Trump that helps both Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Now is the time to complete a defense agreement between Washington and Jerusalem, according to Graham.

“To my friends in Israel, support for Israel is going in the wrong way. If you ever wanted to deal with the United States, now’s the time to do it,” he said, noting that 53 Republican senators are “very pro-Israel.”

He thinks the two allies should renew and improve the terms of the memorandum of understanding signed under the Obama administration, which provides billions in annual defense aid for Israel.

“I’ll leave it up to Israel to decide what to do next, but from my point of view, I want to focus on securing Israel’s future by increasing the memorandum of understanding,” he said, “more money, more weapons, and if Israel wants a strategic existential threat agreement, I would be glad to push that.”

The next challenge, the senator told reporters, is to “make sure the Iranian nuclear program, which is an existential threat to Israel, is dealt with.” That includes a U.S.-Israeli “plan to defang” Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, he said. JNS

{Matzav.com}