Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday that the best way to stop Hamas from killing more Israelis was to meaningfully threaten Iran.
Speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” the South Carolina Republican was responding to news that six Israeli hostages had been found dead in Gaza, including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose parents had spoken at the Democratic National Convention in August.
“If you want the hostages home,” Graham told host Jonathan Karl, “which we all do, you have to increase the cost to Iran. Iran is the great Satan here. Hamas is the junior partner. They’re barbaric, religious nazis, Hamas.”
The senator had a specific set of targets in mind.
“I would urge the Biden administration and Israel to hold Iran accountable for the fate of remaining hostages and put on the target list oil refineries in Iran if the hostages are not released,” he said.
Israel said the six hostages, seized on Oct. 7, were killed shortly before they were about to be rescued. In response to the news, President Joe Biden said: “It is as tragic as it is reprehensible. Make no mistake, Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes. And we will keep working around the clock for a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages.”
Graham has long been an ardent supporter of Israel and an assertive foe of Iran and its allies in the Middle East.
Addressing Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Graham said: “If you want to really change things when it comes to the hostages, tell the Ayatollah what he values is on the target list. Until that happens, nobody’s coming home.”
Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg, the parents of Goldberg-Polin, had been among the most vocal proponents urging for the Israeli hostages to be released. Both Biden and Graham spoke of them by name.
“I have gotten to know his parents, Jon and Rachel. They have been courageous, wise, and steadfast, even as they have endured the unimaginable,” Biden said in his statement.
Graham said on ABC: “Jon and Rachel have done everything in their power to help their son be released from captivity.”