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The Middle East and the Map Lindsey Graham Left Behind

I have flown to Washington, D.C., more times than I can count over the last 1,000 days, almost always for the same reason: to press for the return of the American hostages held in Gaza, including my son. This week I flew there for a different reason: to stand among the people saying goodbye to the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

I am not a head of state or a former colleague from the Senate floor. I am the father of Itay, an American who was nineteen when Hamas murdered him on Oct. 7, 2023, and held his remains in Gaza for more than two years. In the worst stretch of my life, Graham was one of the very few people in Washington willing to tell me the truth about my son’s case, even on the days I did not want to hear it. That is not a small thing to offer a stranger, and I will never forget it.

Many tributes call Graham one of Israel’s great friends, and he was. But it was never a sentimental friendship. Graham’s conviction, stated to me directly more than once, was that Israel’s security would ultimately be secured not by firepower alone but by weaving Israel into the economic life of its region, by bringing Saudi Arabia to the table, widening the Abraham Accords, and boxing in Iran. That was the map he was still drawing when he died. Most of it is still just lines on paper.

The uncomfortable question is what happens to that map now. Graham was not merely a reliable vote; he was the person who kept making the calls after everyone........

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