Sen. Lindsey Graham to ToI: International Stabilization Force not going to ‘come in and fight’

The nascent International Stabilization Force for Gaza will only be able to operate in the Strip “after Hamas been disarmed,” US Senator Lindsey Graham tells The Times of Israel during an interview in Tel Aviv.

“There’s no international stabilizing force that’s going to come in here and fight,” he continues.

Graham speaks to The Times of Israel after meeting with Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar during a two-day visit to Israel. The trip comes a week before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to travel to the US to meet with US President Donald Trump.

The US should “give Hamas a timetable” to disarm, Graham argues. “Put them on the clock. If they don’t disarm in a credible way, then unleash Israel on ’em,” says Graham.

“My advice to the [US] president is until Hamas is dealt out of the game militarily and politically, the chance of success is pretty remote,” the senior Republican lawmaker tells The Times of Israel.

Even with the threat of renewed high-intensity Israeli military operations, Graham says, there is little chance that Hamas will disarm.

“These people are religious zealots,” says Graham. “They’re religious Nazis. I have no confidence, short of their demise, that they’re ever going to do anything other than what they promised to do. Did they stop wanting to destroy Israel? Did they change their stated goals? No.”

Hezbollah in Lebanon also has to be given a deadline to disarm before Israel is given the green light to attack, says Graham.

He calls for the US to join in the attack on Hezbollah: “I would like to fly with Israel. I would like the United States to participate in military operations, in the aerial side, against Hezbollah, if that’s what it takes to knock them out.”

“I want our fingerprints on that. Let me tell you why. We had a lot of brave young Marines die at the hands of these bastards, and we have a very long memory,” Graham says, appearing to refer to the 1983 Hezbollah bombing of a US Marines barracks in Beirut, which killed 241 American servicemembers.