Graham used the analogy multiple times while condemning President Joe Biden for threatening to withhold certain weapons from Israel if it launches a military operation in Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza where over a million civilians are sheltering.
A United States lawmaker, Senator Lindsey Graham has urged Israel to do whatever needs to be done to win its “existential” war with Hamas, just like the US was “justified” to drop nuclear bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.
Graham a Republican Senator representing South Carolina stated this in an interview with NBC News on Sunday.
The Israeli military is facing increasing international scrutiny as its military operation in Gaza enters its eighth month, claiming the lives of more than 34,000 Palestinians, most women and children.
Graham, a staunch supporter of Israel, however, blamed Hamas for the bulk of civilian casualties and urged Israel to continue fighting until a decisive victory is achieved, no matter the cost.
“When we were faced with destruction as a nation after Pearl Harbor, fighting the Germans and the Japanese, we decided to end the war by the bombing [of] Hiroshima [and] Nagasaki with nuclear weapons,” Graham said. “That was the right decision.”
He added, “Give Israel the bombs they need to end the war. They can’t afford to lose.”
Graham used the analogy multiple times while condemning President Joe Biden for threatening to withhold certain weapons from Israel if it launches a military operation in Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza where over a million civilians are sheltering.
Asked why it was OK for President Ronald Reagan to withhold certain weapons from Israel during its war in Lebanon in the 1980s, but not OK for Biden to threaten to do so now, Graham once again brought up World War II.
“Can I say this?” he asked. “Why is it OK for America to drop two nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end their existential threat war? Why was it OK for us to do that? I thought it was OK.”
He added, “So, Israel, do whatever you have to do to survive as a Jewish state. Whatever you have to do.”
Regarding comments made by U.S. military officials that technology has vastly changed since World War II, a point he made earlier in the interview as well, Graham answered, “Yeah, these military officials that you’re talking about are full of crap.”
Graham argued that Hamas is to blame for civilian casualties throughout the conflict.
His comments came shortly after Secretary of State Antony Blinken joined the program and declined to identify a “red line” with Israel, telling the anchor: “Absent a credible plan to get [civilians] out of harm’s way and to support them, the president’s been clear for some time that we couldn’t and would not support a major military operation in Rafah.”
Blinken also discussed U.S. concerns about the use of “high-payload” bombs, saying, “We have been holding back and we’re in active conversations with Israel about the provision of heavy or high-payload weapons, large bombs, because of the concern that we have about the effect these weapons can have when they’re used in a dense urban environment like Rafah.”