Senator Graham, in an interview with The New York Sun, makes clear that he is all in for President Trump in 2024 but, on a remarkable bipartisan note, cautions that only President Biden can broker a deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia. 

“If you want to normalize ties with Saudi Arabia, you need to do it on a Democratic president’s watch,” the senator of South Carolina said in conversation with the publisher of the Sun, Dovid Efune, and its associate editor, A.R. Hoffman, at the paper’s offices on Thursday. He insists that while Mr. Trump founded the Abraham Accords, a new “center of gravity” in Middle Eastern relations, only Mr. Biden can finish them. As the election draws near, time is running out. 

In exchange for normalizing relations with the Jewish state, Saudi Arabia will demand from America a mutual defense pact and a nuclear enrichment program, Mr. Graham said, as well as economic agreements. With 27 years at Capitol Hill under his belt, he foresees that Democratic senators would oppose any such efforts between Mr. Trump and the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, should the 45th president return to office. 

While singularly focused on a potential Saudi-Israel pact in the long term, Mr. Graham conveyed to the Sun his view that Qatar is an indispensable interlocutor in the near term. With criticism of Doha rising, Mr. Graham acknowledges that its relationship with Hamas — the country houses the terrorist organization’s top brass — is “problematic.” Yet he supports giving Qatar “the conduit of the hostage negotiations,” a seat at the table in the march toward reconciliation.

October 7 was “an attack on Pearl Harbor and 9/11 all rolled into one,” Mr. Graham said. The evidence is clear to him that Iran generated the attack to disrupt Israel’s growing integration in the region. “The worst nightmare for the Ayatollah,” he explains, “is for the Arab world to reconcile with Israel and move toward the light.”

“If the Iranians can stop reconciliation, normalization in the next four or five months, it may be decades before we revisit this again,” Mr. Graham said. He offers America and Israel a piece of advice in their approach to the Middle East: “if Iran wants to do A, you should want to do B.” 

Using Doha as a forum to negotiate with Hamas will, Mr. Graham said, punish Iran while bringing the Saudis and Israelis closer together. “The opportunity to destroy Hamas opens up many doors,” Mr. Graham said. “The 1,200 Israelis who died brutally will not have died in vain if, at the end of the day, we destroy Hamas and isolate Iran.” 

The motive for the crown prince here, Mr. Graham ventures, appears to be just as much personal as political. His interest in ending the war between Israel and Hamas might stem from his pledge to spend a trillion dollars for his plan to modernize his nation, “Saudi Vision 2030.” “If you don’t fix the Palestinian problem somehow, Israel will never know peace,” Mr. Graham said, “and he’ll never get the money back.” 

Meanwhile, Mr. Graham urged America to be more assertive in its strategic alliance with Israel. “The Arabs respect strength,” he said, and related that he advised Mr. Trump during his presidency that “we have a unique relationship with Israel. If we can’t be good to our friend, why would they trust us? The stronger you are in your friendship with Israel, the more respect you get from the Arabs.”

Mr. Graham is still an ardent fan of Mr. Trump. He was a former foe in the 2016 race — and faces another South Carolinian, Ambassador Nikki Haley, as a competitor in 2024 — but a friend at the District of Columbia and on the golf course. The senator foresees that the Colorado supreme court’s decision to disqualify the former president from the ballot on the determination of involvement in insurrection — a charge he was acquitted of during the impeachment hearings Mr. Graham attended — will be struck down quickly. 

“I’ve never been more worried that the desire to destroy Trump is knocking down checks and balances we’ve had for a very long time,” Mr. Graham, who was the chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, said. Referencing the Democrats who appear to evade due process, he warns potential voters, “If these people got the House, the Senate, and the White House, you wouldn’t know America anymore.”