11:41 a.m. ET, December 3, 2023
The Republican senator rejects the defense secretary’s argument that more civilian casualties in Gaza could worsen the insurgency
By CNN’s Avery Lotz, US Senator Lindsey Graham and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Getty Images
US Senator Lindsey Graham rejected Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s claim that further civilian casualties in Gaza could spawn even more insurgents and replace “a tactical victory with a strategic defeat”.
The Republican senator went on to call Austin “naive” and said he had “lost all trust” in him.
“A strategic defeat would incite the Palestinians? They are already inflamed. “From birth they are taught to hate and kill the Jews,” Graham claimed on CNN – and called on Austin to “stop publicly criticizing Israel.”
“Secretary Austin is telling Israel things that are impossible to achieve,” Graham said. “Secretary Austin, the reason Palestinians are dying: Gaza is so dense that Hamas has tunnels under homes, under schools, under hospitals.”
Graham added that he understands the theory of what retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal has called “rebel mathematics,” an idea that the collateral death of civilians in war can be a catalyst for the emergence of insurgencies, but argued that the Gaza’s population has been “radicalized for decades.”
“Do you know what is taught in schools?” Graham asked. “The idea that we or Israel are somehow radicalizing the people of Gaza is ridiculous.”
“If we had been attacked like we were on 9/11, if someone had asked us for a ceasefire against al-Qaeda within two months, we would have laughed at them and driven them out of the city,” he said he and also criticized Vice President Kamala Harris’ statement on Saturday that “too many innocent Palestinians have been killed.”
“Vice President Harris, tell Israel how to destroy Hamas in a way that doesn’t hurt innocent Palestinians, and I’ll pass it on,” he said. “By the way, no Republican believes that,” he added. “No Republican is calling on Israel to change its military tactics.”
Help for Israel: Meanwhile, he said he would not vote for a bill supporting Israel and Ukraine if the U.S. immigration restrictions he and his GOP colleagues advocated were not included in the bill.
“I think there are voices for Israel outside of the package,” he claimed. “Republicans overwhelmingly support Israel, as do most Democrats. Republicans are divided on the issue of Ukraine.”