U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Wednesday in Jerusalem expressed his hope that the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire would serve as a stepping stone to move the entire Middle East closer to peace.

Speaking with reporters in the Israeli capital, Graham said that the ceasefire agreement reached this week was good for both countries.

“It will give the people in Lebanon some breathing room and it will ensure that there will be no Oct. 7 generated from that border against Israel,” he said.

However, while ending the fighting was necessary to “start the peace” in the region, he added, “I am hopeful but not naïve. The difficulty of achieving normalization after Oct. 7 is extraordinary.”

Graham is on his eighth visit to the region since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, and arrived in Israel from Saudi Arabia. 

When asked by JNS if a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia would include the establishment of a Palestinian state, Graham said, “I think the general dynamic is as follows: The State of Israel after Oct. 7 is different—and Iran wanted it to be so. People in Israel need to understand that whatever agreement they reach, if they ever come to one, will give them the security that was lacking before. To suggest that normalization would be the same as before Oct. 7 is denying reality.”

For the Arab world to make peace with Israel, he said, was “Iran’s worst nightmare.” 

“But there is another reality,” he continued. “[Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman], the de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the leader of the Islamic world—the holy mosque of Mecca and Medina, the center of the Islamic faith, is in his country—he will have to convince the Islamic world that it’s the right thing to do to recognize Israel. And I think for him to do that he’ll have to show there was some dignity brought to the Palestinian people.” 

One of the biggest challenges with regard to peace, said Graham, was that “the Palestinian people are the most radicalized people on the planet right now. From the time they are born until they die, they are taught to hate the Jews and drive you into the sea.” 

However, he continued, “We’ve dealt with this before, with Germany and Japan. After Hitler was defeated, America worked with partners to create a new Germany and a new Japan and it worked, so it’s not a hopeless cause. It’s a difficult choice.

For Israel to truly live in peace with its neighbors, a transformation of the Palestinian world is required, he said. Such a transformation is needed by the Palestinians themselves, he added.

“Transformation of the Palestinian world is required for a young Palestinian to have any hope at all, because if Hamas comes back, we’re right where we started,” said Graham.

“My belief, and this is just me, I’m not speaking for my government and I’m certainly not speaking for Israel, is that the only way to defeat Hamas permanently is to transform the Palestinian society that led to Hamas,” he added.

Graham also believes that the Arab world will need to step up and take charge of Gaza once the war there ends.

“Somebody has to take over Gaza, somebody has to rebuild it. It’s not going to be the United States. We’re not going to rebuild Gaza and take it over, because we would fail,” he said.

Long-term Israeli military control of Gaza, he added, would be “difficult.”

“Eventually somebody is going to have to come and rebuild Gaza and create an entity in the Palestinian world that would live in peace with Israel. The only group that I think has a chance of doing that is the Arab world, led by the crown prince and the United Arab Emirates,” he said. 

The senator then turned to the recent decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant, calling it “beyond outrageous.”

“There are so many threats to Israel. Wherever you look, there’s a group that wants to annihilate the Jewish state. But there is another threat—international bodies who want to isolate the Jewish state or prevent it from defending itself,” he said.

The ICC’s decision is “beyond outrageous, it tramples on every concept that I hold near and dear as a lawyer—the rule of law,” he said.

In order to assert jurisdiction in the matter, the court had to conjure a Palestinian state out of thin air, he said, adding, “That is a legal fiction, that is not true. “

For the ICC to exercise jurisdiction, “They ruled, bizarrely, that Gaza is part of a Palestinian state,” he said. 

“My question to the ICC: Who is the leader of the Palestinian state? What are its boundaries, what kind of government does it have? What is its charter? You can’t answer any of those questions.”

Secondly, he said, “Israel isn’t a member of the ICC. They’re claiming jurisdiction over the State of Israel, and it’s not a member. The International Criminal Court has a theory of jurisdiction with no limitation.”

Graham said he would be introducing legislation in Congress shortly calling on the United States to sanction any country that seeks to enforce the arrest warrants. 

“You could be a close ally—Canada, Britain, France, you name it—if you buy into this arrest warrant as being legitimate, you are going to meet stiff bipartisan resistance in America,” he said.

“To the world: If you empower this folly at the ICC, then you will have a hard time doing business in America and coming to America. Why? Because we have no better ally than Israel, and one way to destroy the Jewish state is to destroy its ability to defend itself, by making it criminal to defend Jews from terrorists. We’re not going to allow that to happen in America,” he added. 

Equally important, he continued, “is that we’re next. I openly ask member nations: ‘Are you claiming the ICC has jurisdiction over the American president or secretary of defense if allegations of wrongdoing are levied?’ I can’t get an answer to that question.”

He concluded his remarks by saying, “To my friends in Israel, you have my promise and commitment to talk to President [Donald] Trump very soon about my idea, in conjunction with Sen. [Tom] Cotton and others, including Democrats, to pass sanctions in the Congress, signed by President Trump hopefully, that would sanction any country that took action against Israel, because we’re next. 

“It’s one thing to sanction the court—we’ll do that, but that’s not enough. If you want to stop the spread of this absurdity, you have to put the civilized world on notice that if you choose the rogue ICC, you do so at your own peril. I’m confident that my legislation […] would pass overwhelmingly in the Senate and the House. 

“And to the people of Israel, our dear friends and allies: We will have your backs on this issue. Protecting you protects us.”