A bipartisan delegation of senators from the United States met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Sunday to express their support for the people of Israel in the continuing war launched on October 7, 2023 by invading Hamas-led terrorists from Gaza.
The delegation, led by South Carolina’s Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Connecticut’s Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, met with Netanyahu on the one-year anniversary of the deadly October 7 massacre.
“I deeply appreciate the visit by Senators Graham and Blumenthal on this day of commemoration, October 7th,” Netanyahu said. “It was the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust, but unlike the Holocaust, we fight back. We’re fighting like lions with the support of the American government and the American people, and its representatives here. I want to thank you both for your stellar support for Israel throughout the war.”
Blumenthal said the senators were “honored to be with you and we appreciate your giving us this opportunity to speak with you on this really agonizingly difficult day for your country and the people of Israel and all of us in the United States who feel so deeply that it was an absolutely abhorrent inhumane attack on the Jewish people. We’re here to say we have Israel’s back and Israel has the right to defend itself.”
Graham, an old friend and strong supporter of the State of Israel, pulled no punches in his remarks.
“The reason people were killed on October 7th was they were Jewish. We’ve seen this movie before. We don’t want to see any more of those movies. Living in their own homeland.
“You said something that really struck me,” Graham said, turning to Netanyahu. “No one should be a refugee in their own country. They’re going back to the north, folks. They’re going back to these kibbutzes. Whatever it takes to get your people back in their homes, you do it,” he told Netanyahu.
“To my friends in France, you’ve got this ass backwards,” Graham said bluntly. “You should be doubling down on helping Israel, because the people that want to destroy Israel also want to destroy the French people. I get that. He gets that.
“You’re fighting our fight. We’re going to help you with your military needs,” he told Netanyahu.
“The Twin Towers fell not because of a hurricane; because radical Islamist terrorists killed 3,000 of us on a single day. And they would kill all of us if they could.
“If Iran ever got a nuclear weapon, they would use it. The question would be who would they use it against first. Me? You? Saudi Arabia? We can never let that happen. So we’re going to help you.”
Also attending the meeting were the Prime Minister’s Foreign Policy Adviser, Dr. Ophir Falk, the Prime Minister’s Spokesperson, Dr. Omer Dostri, and the Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs North America Desk, Dor Shapira.
