Rare video footage from a new documentary “Lindsey’s Game”, about Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, offers a fascinating glimpse into closed-door conversations between Jerusalem and Washington as fateful decisions were being made.
In one of the film’s central scenes, recorded March 4 in Graham’s Senate office, the senator is preparing to fly to Florida to meet with President Donald Trump. Just before leaving, he spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and told him he planned to try convincing the president to join Israel’s campaign in Lebanon.
But Netanyahu moved to block the initiative. He made clear to Graham that Israel wanted to focus at that stage on the campaign against Iran, and that opening a broad front against Hezbollah could actually serve the other side and lead to an escalation neither party wanted.
“I thought about the other side,” Netanyahu said. “We’re focusing on Iran. If we tell Hezbollah we’re going all the way, then they’ll have no choice but to go all the way with us. Right now we’re not interested in that.”
In another clip released from the film, Graham is seen celebrating what he presents as a personal achievement in advancing the war, even comparing Trump and Netanyahu at the end to two World War II leaders: “Trump and Bibi are Roosevelt and Churchill.”