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<\/a><\/p>\nSen. Lindsey Graham (L) meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu (R) in Jerusalem on April 17, 2023. (GPO\/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Graham\u2019s office announced his death in a statement early Sunday morning, saying that he had died late Saturday after \u201ca brief and sudden illness.\u201d Graham had returned from Ukraine, where he met with Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelensky, the day before.<\/p>\n
Graham\u2019s death means the Senate and Republican Party have lost one of its most durable pro-Israel voices at a time when anti-Israel sentiment is on the rise in both places. In his more than three decades in Congress, first in the House and then in the Senate since 2003, Graham aggressively backed U.S. aid to Israel, advanced a hawkish line on Iran and met repeatedly with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in both Israel and the United States.<\/p>\n
Netanyahu repeatedly said Israel had \u201cno greater friend\u201d than Graham in the United States. Graham\u2019s most recent visit to Israel was in February, ahead of the U.S.-Israel war on Iran, which he later took credit for urging. \u201cThey\u2019ll tell me things our own government won\u2019t tell me,\u201d he said of Israeli officials at the time.<\/p>\n
Graham was also a vocal backer of Israel\u2019s military responses to attacks by Hamas, including during the 2014 and after Hamas\u2019 Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza and augured a period of declining support for Israel. On Oct. 8, he issued a statement calling for Israel to defeat Hamas \u201cby any and all means necessary\u201d and in the subsequent weeks drew attention for calling on Israel to \u201cflatten the place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Graham continued to promote a two-state solution as it receded as a U.S. priority, but he also adjusted to reflect the mounting isolationist streak in his party. Last year, he made news for embracing Netanyahu\u2019s announcement of a plan to \u201ctaper\u201d U.S. aid to Israel, saying it should be done sooner than Netanyahu\u2019s 10-year timeline.<\/p>\n
Graham\u2019s outlook on Israel fit into a broad portfolio that included helming the Senate Budget Committee and pushing for a stronger U.S. response to Russia. Graham, who never married and had no children, was up for reelection in November.<\/p>\n
This obituary will be updated.<\/p>\n