Just weeks after calling for the United States to acknowledge Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has asserted the need for establishing a mutual defense pact that would declare an attack against Israel to be an attack against America. Addressing an assembly of Jewish Republicans, Graham, who has emerged as Israel’s most prolific supporter on Capitol Hill, dramatically declared to Israel’s enemies that “to destroy the one and only Jewish state, you have to come through us to get them.” Sen. Graham recently traveled to Israel apparently laying the groundwork for the announcement of American acknowledgement of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan. The strategic plateau was conquered from Syria in the 1967 war. It has frequently been discussed in the context of being returned as part of a comprehensive peace plan, but the national feeling that it could be done dissipated when former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad began his frequent threats to “wipe Israel off the map” and Israelis began to view the Golan as Iran’s front porch. The proximity of the Syrian civil war to Israel underscored the strategic value of the Heights as a necessary buffer brought the issue full circle. Sen. Graham is sponsoring a resolution in the Senate that will reiterate Israeli sovereignty but also create an opportunity to force Senate Democrats to vote “yea” or “nay” on an Israel issue while the Republicans seek to hammer home that, in President Trump’s words, “Democrats hates Jewish people.” Two Democratic candidates for the presidency have ratcheted up the debate. Beto O’Rourke labeled Prime Minister Netanyahu a “racist” while Pete Buttigieg called Netanyahu’s remarks a “provocation” and rejected “Netanyahu’s politics.”