Graham Says Hamas Recognition of Israel a Prerequisite to Peace
May 21, 2011, 12:22 AM EDTBy Julie Hirschfeld Davis
May 21 (Bloomberg) -- No peace agreement in the Middle East can be achieved -- and no further U.S. aid to Palestinians should be provided -- as long as Hamas fails to recognize Israel as a legitimate Jewish state, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said.
“How do you have a peace agreement where part of the coalition government on the Palestinian side has in their charter the destruction of Israel?” Graham, of South Carolina, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing this weekend.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas this month signed a reconciliation accord with Hamas, which doesn’t recognize Israel as a state and has been classified by the U.S. and Israel as a terrorist group.
“As long as that exists, you’ll never have a peace agreement,” Graham said. “And why should we give money to people who have as their goal to destroy our best partner in the Mideast?”
He spoke shortly after President Barack Obama met at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who rejected the president’s call in a May 19 speech to use Israel’s 1967 borders as a starting point for negotiations with the Palestinians. Netanyahu called the lines “indefensible,” and Graham said invoking them only makes it “harder to get an agreement.”
Domestic Spending
On domestic matters, Graham, 55, said spending cuts to entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare are a political imperative for Republicans in any debt-reduction deal with Obama.
“I don’t think any Republican can go home and survive, quite frankly” without tackling entitlements that are driving the $14 trillion-plus debt, Graham said. Pressed about his position on raising revenue through tax increases, Graham said it “would make some sense” to eliminate deductions and tax breaks while lowering rates, though he said that wouldn’t have to be part of the debt-cutting compromise.
“The mandate of 2010 was about Washington spending,” Graham said, referring to the midterm congressional elections in which a Tea Party-fueled Republican wave based on reining in spending cost Democrats control of the House and seats in the Senate.
Biden Talks
Obama has tapped Vice President Joe Biden to lead talks with Republicans and Democrats on a deficit-cutting deal that lawmakers in both parties say will be necessary to gain support for a vote of Congress in the coming months to raise the debt limit.
Efforts by a separate group of six senators from both parties to reach a more sweeping deal on spending cuts, budgetary revisions and cuts to entitlement programs and tax increases collapsed this week when Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma abandoned the negotiations, saying they were at an impasse.
Graham called on Obama to join Republicans in a politically perilous push to limit Medicare and Social Security benefits for wealthier people and raise the age at which they become available.
“If you’re listening out there,” Graham said of the president, “there are a group of Republicans who would gladly walk the plank with you and hold hands when it comes to means testing and age adjustment.”
Afghanistan Security
A second-term senator who sits on the Armed Services Committee, Graham also called for conditioning aid to Afghanistan on the progress of their security forces and restricting assistance in Pakistan to those who reject terrorist organizations.
Graham said Obama’s strategy of beginning to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan in July is “a good plan,” adding that the president should lay the groundwork now for keeping some units there in a support role past 2014, when Obama has said U.S. troops will transition out of Afghanistan.
Graham, a close ally of the Arizona Senator John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, said he’s remains neutral as the party’s 2012 race gears up. Asked whether he wanted Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels to get in the race, Graham said he would be “an incredibly good candidate.”
As for former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, McCain’s 2008 running mate, Graham said, “Sure,” he would like to see her run, adding: “When I go to Best Buy, I want 15 TVs to shop from. The more choices for the consumers, the better.”
--Editors: Robin Meszoly, Don Frederick
To contact the reporter on this story: Julie Hirschfeld Davis in Washington at Jdavis159@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva@bloomberg.net
