Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) gave a speech in his home state of South Carolina defending the state of Israel and rebuking its critics in the Republican Party. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) offered a lengthy response on X criticizing the Senator and characterized his rhetoric for being ‘America Last.’
The central point of Sen. Graham’s speech is that the U.S. has every reason to continue supporting the state of Israel. He claims that they remain a reliable ally and even goes so far as to invoke God and Christianity.
Rep. Greene took issue with all of his claims, especially the one about Christianity and God’s relationship with Israel. This has become a mainstay issue for Greene, who has been openly criticizing Israel and its supporters like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
In the speech, Graham first responds to the claims made about genocide in the region and states, “If Israel wanted to commit genocide they could. They have the capacity to do that. They choose not to.”
Greene raised a point in response to this. She stated, “So why is America funding them and fighting for them??!!! We should not be!! And it is not a matter of supporting either Israel or Hamas, as he suggest, which is ridiculous. It is about supporting AMERICA!!!”
Graham went on to state, “A word of warning. If America pulls the plug on Israel, God will pull the plug on us, and we’re not gonna let that happen.”
Greene flatly rebuked this, replying, “This is 1,000% false and is the fear mongering tactic used on good hearted American Christians to force us to fund and fight the secular government of nuclear armed Israel’s wars.”
Clearly present here is a disagreement about the identity of Israel. Graham believes that the secular state of Israel founded in 1948 is the same Israel found in the Bible. Greene believes they are two completely separate entities.
Aside from these points, Greene also restates her position that the U.S. should prioritize its own issues, rather than continuing to fund foreign wars and other countries. She commented, “The sirens should be blaring in Washington DC with an all hands on deck panic mentality that every single elected member of congress and senator should be working as hard as possible to prevent our inevitable demise.”
