Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C) is considering a White House run, and is also probably the closest candidate to the pro-Israel community. (One source has told me that his candidacy could blow open Jewish fundraising for GOP hopefuls.)
His ambitions and his friendships were on display last night in Boston, where he addressed an AIPAC dinner and said, “You will see me in New Hampshire,” Uri Blau reports.
He also said this: “Al Qaeda, Al Nusra, Al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula… Everything that starts with ‘Al’ in the Middle East is bad news.”
As Blau reports, “al” is Arabic for “the.”
“Bad news” might be a broad brush for everything that follows a definite article or the prefix “al” in the Middle East.
For instance: About a century ago, a woman I happen to know named Sarah Albaldes in Izmir, Turkey, fell hard for a handsome guy from Salonika, now in Greece.
So, yes, my grandfather might have had a beef with Sen. Graham.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
