South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham. Photo: Screenshot.

JNS.org – Amid reports of bilateral tension following the Obama administration’s decision to delay a shipment of Hellfire missiles to Israel, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said the U.S.-Israel relationship is not defined by “the relationship of the leaders.”

“Relations between Israel and the U.S. are relations between two countries,” Graham said in an interview with Israel Hayom. “The terrorists see us as the Great Satan and you (Israel) as the Little Satan. As far as they’re concerned, we’re exactly the same thing. The relations between the two countries aren’t the relationship of the leaders.”

Graham said he believes President Barack Obama “supports Israel” and that Secretary of State John Kerry is “not Israel’s enemy,” but is not sure if Kerry understood he was “serving the interests of Hamas” by supporting a Gaza cease-fire proposal from Hamas-funding nations Qatar and Turkey.

“President Obama has to realize that in Israel, the war against Hamas wasn’t a war of the right, left, or center,” said Graham. “It was a war of the entire Israeli people against a terrorist organization that wanted to destroy it, and Obama has to take that into account.”