Lindsey Graham, the ‘Three Amigos’ and the shifting politics of Israel
July 13, 2026 — 12:56pmFor weeks, Washington was mystified by the status of Mitch McConnell, the outgoing Republican senator who finally surfaced on Sunday after being admitted to hospital in mid-June. That. . .
July 13, 2026 — 12:56pmFor weeks, Washington was mystified by the status of Mitch McConnell, the outgoing Republican senator who finally surfaced on Sunday after being admitted to hospital in mid-June. That has now taken a back seat tothe sudden deathof Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator who, unlike McConnell, was seeking re-election in November, and had much more public service left to contribute. Senator Lindsey Graham (left) with colleague Mitch McConnell in 2022, before an address by Olena Zelenska, Ukraine’s first lady, in Washington, DC. BloombergBoth men, but more so Graham, were part of a Republican old guard on foreign policy, supporting aggressive military intervention around the world – particularly against Iran – and close relations with America’s traditional allies. Graham was the last surviving member of the so-called “Three Amigos”, alongside Republican senator John McCain and Democrat-turned independent Joe Lieberman, who shared similarly hawkish views on national security. He was also an old-school Washington character. A2010New York Times Magazineprofilenoted Graham could not cook and had a penchant for Chick-fil-A, Baileys liqueur and almond schnapps. In a recent book, Louisiana senator John Kennedy wrote that if you invited Graham to dinner, “you don’t know if he’ll sit down for an intelligent conversation or get drunk and vomit in the fish tank”. Graham (centre) with senators Joe Lieberman (left) and John McCain watch the Super Bowl in a hotel lobby bar in 2008. Graham had a penchant for Chick-fil-A, Baileys liqueur and almond schnapps. APBut the South Carolinian was best known for his enthusiasm for deploying the US military. “If you want to stump Lindsey,” Kennedy also wrote, “Just ask him to name a country he wouldn’t bomb. ”Graham was a staunch supporter of Ukraine. He spearheaded a bipartisan effort to impose severe secondary sanctions on countries doing business with Russia – particularly buying its “blood oil”. Just hours before his death on Saturday night (US time) he returned from Ukraine, where he met President Volodymyr Zelensky and announced that he and other senators reached a deal with the White House to finally progress a version of the sanctions bill. And the 71-year-old was arguably the strongest advocate for Israel in the US Congress. Indeed, on Sunday morning (Washington time), a shocked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared on NBC’sMeet the Pressto mourn the loss of his “beloved friend”. Graham and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Israeli-held Golan Heights in 2019. Graham was arguably the strongest advocate for Israel in the US Congress. APNetanyahu said Graham was so sure the two countries’ security interests were intertwined that he opposed reducing US assistance to Israel, even when Netanyahu was in favour. “He would argue with me … I said, ‘Lindsey, we can do with a smaller number. ’ He said, ‘No, you can’t. ’ Then he would go to the Senate and outbid the prime minister of Israel. ”Graham was indefatigable and never wavered in his support, Netanyahu added. “He said, ‘I stand with Israel openly, I know that the winds of fashion blow in another way, I couldn’t care less. ’ ”Those winds come in the form of a substantial shift in sentiment towards Israel among younger Americans, including Republicans. In May, aTimes/Siena poll of potential or likely Republican voters found 63 per cent of those aged 18 to 44 opposed the US providing additional military or economic support for Israel: 45 per cent were strongly opposed. Graham recently returned from Ukraine, where he met President Volodymyr Zelensky and announced progress on a Russia sanctions bill. Ukrainian Presidential Press OfficeThey are given voice by prominent media personalities such as Tucker Carlson, who has earned a legion of young fans by questioning US support for Israel, condemning the war against Iran and accusing Trump of being “Israel first” (the same line used by the regime in Iran). Last year, Carlson called Graham “truly evil” and a “sick f---” after the senator told a Republican Jewish Coalition summit he was proud of the GOP because “we’re killing all the right people and we’re cutting your taxes”. Graham told the summit that weirdos might espouse anti-Israel sentiment while sitting in their basements, but to win elections as a Republican, you had to be pro-Israel. And yet, there is some evidence that is changing. Vice President JD Vance – who is 41 and possiblythe next Republican nominee for president– has drawn lines in the sand on US support for Israel, and recently warned the country needs to “wake up” to its current standing in the world. President Donald Trump and Graham exit Air Force One in North Charleston for a campaign rally in 2020. APDouglas Rossinow, a historian and professor at Minnesota’s Metro State University, who is writing a book on American Zionism, struggles to name contemporaries of Graham who will maintain his full-throated, pro-Israel interventionist sentiment. Graham was a creature of the 1990s and the Newt Gingrich revolution in Congress, Rossinow notes, when the Republican Party became fervently pro-Israel. “How far it’s changing again now, I think, remains to be seen,” he says. “Clearly there’s change in the younger intelligentsia and some of the grassroots activists in the base of the Republican coalition and the conservative movement. ”Rossinow says people like Graham, Trump and possibly even former president Joe Biden are the kind of people Israeli cities and towns might name streets after. Trump listens as Graham speaks at a campaign event in South Carolina in 2023. AP“[But] they are one-by-one passing from the political scene. The gerontocracy in the US are the ones who believe in the old-time religion of ‘back Israel no matter what’. ”Graham was a throwback in other ways, too: by most accounts, an old-school southern gentleman, capable of reaching across the aisle with good humour in an increasingly partisan and intransigent Washington. Trump, appearing onMeet the Presson Sunday, said he would call Graham if he needed to make a deal with Democrats. Indeed, the two men spoke in Graham’s final hours, not knowing what was to come. “He was like a member of the family to me. It’s very tough actually,” Trump said. Vance, despite their policy differences, said Graham had the best sense of humour in the Senate. Many of the immediate tributes came from Democrats. Biden, who served alongside Graham in the Senate, said that, although they often disagreed loudly, they shared a mutual understanding of the importance of public service. And Hunter Biden, the former president’s son, recalled a 2015 documentary in which an emotional Graham called the senior Biden “the nicest person I think I’ve ever met in politics” and “as good a man as God ever created”. It is a cliche to say upon a man’s death that we may not see his like again, but in Graham’s case, it might be apt. Get a note directly from our foreigncorrespondentson what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter. From our partners