Senator Lindsey Graham owed me nothing when we first met, in October 2023, as part of a delegation meeting with the families of American hostages. Yet he immediately built a compassionate relationship with me, and made a promise he always kept: to tell me the truth about the state of the negotiations, even when I would not like what he had to say. 

He gave me his only State of the Union invitation in 2024, while my son was held captive by Hamas in Gaza. He was heartbroken to learn that my son was the youngest US citizen taken and killed by Hamas — one of the 46 Americans murdered on October 7 — and he never stopped insisting that anyone who kills Americans has grave consequences waiting for him. He felt deeply for the hostage families, and for mine specifically.

Next week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu travels to Washington to pay his respects to Senator Graham, who died suddenly this month. He will meet President Trump at the White House and mourn a man he rightly called one of Israel’s greatest friends. The eulogies will be heartfelt and deserved. But Graham’s friendship with Israel was never sentimental — it was strategic. He believed Israel’s long-term........

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