Before Lindsey there was Fritz, an anti-Iraq war, Israel skeptic

Before Lindsey there was Fritz, an anti-Iraq war, Israel skeptic Funeral services (wsbtv.com › 25WJ2FL2ZBD47I6TK3UUIVI424) for Sen. Lindsey Graham, who died suddenly on July 11 at the age of 71, will take place on Tuesday in Washington and Wednesday in his home state of South Carolina.Graham was known as an astute conservative politician, a military hawk, and an ardent defender of Israel, which made him a polarizing figure in today’s political climate. Along with many world leaders (politico.com), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid will be attending the memorial at the National Cathedral, according to reports (timesofisrael.com). But before Graham there was Democratic Sen. Fritz Hollings, with whom Graham served for two years as the junior senator for South Carolina before the older man retired in January 2005 at the age of 83. Unlike Graham, who became the senate’s standard bearer for military intervention and a boundless champion for Israel, Hollings left the Senate after 38 years deeply conflicted about the war in Iraq (he voted for it in 2002 but reversed course and became a vocal critic (wltx.com › 101 383805776)) and of Israel, which made him a controversial (though prescient) figure. He finished out his career accused of anti-semitism — an accusation that at the time did little to temper his attitude.Without using the term “America First,” he openly wondered whether the U.S. was too subservient to Israel’s agenda and criticized by name the role of Israel’s neoconservative supporters, suggesting they pushed Washington into one of its most disastrous wars of the modern era. Hollings wrote (original.antiwar.com) in Charleston’s Post and Courier in May 2004:Even President Bush acknowledges that Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11... Of course there were no weapons of mass destruction. Israel’s intelligence, Mossad, knows what’s going on in Iraq. They are the best. They have to know. Israel’s survival depends on knowing. Israel long since would have taken us to the weapons of mass destruction if there were any or if they had been removed. With Iraq no threat, why invade a sovereign country?“The answer,” Hollings surmised, was ”President Bush’s policy to secure Israel.” He called out then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, former Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Perle, and Fox News pundit and syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer for advancing the idea “that the way to guarantee Israel’s security is to spread democracy in the area.” He was referring in part to the paper titled “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm,” (en.wikipedia.org) which was written for Netanyahu in 1996 by Perle (with contributions from Doug Feith, who later worked as undersecretary of defense for policy in the Bush Pentagon during the war). It advocated in part taking Saddam Hussein out of power in Iraq as a new approach to Israel’s security in the region."He [Bush] was determined to invade and democratize Iraq to secure Israel pursuant to Richard Perle's plan of 'Clean Break,'" Hollings wrote (mondoweiss.net) in his 2008 memoir. “When George W. Bush was elected president, proponents of ‘Clean Break’ hit pay dirt. Suddenly, those who favored striking at Iraq held seats of power.”Hollings was one of the first lawmakers to sour on the war. Barely six months after the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, he was the only senator to vote (https://