Fritz Hollings Warned Iraq War Was 'For Israel' — and Paid for It
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- Fritz Hollings served 38 years in the U.S. Senate before retiring in January 2005 at age 83, overlapping with Lindsey Graham for two years as South Carolina's senators
- Hollings wrote in a May 10, 2004 Post and Courier column that President Bush invaded Iraq to 'secure Israel' and named Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, and Charles Krauthammer as architects of the 1996 'Clean Break' strategy paper
- Hollings was the only senator to vote against a 2003 resolution supporting troops in Iraq, calling it 'political games' and criticizing Bush for cutting taxes instead of funding the war
- Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League accused Hollings of 'scapegoating the Jewish community,' and Senator John Kerry called his comments 'absurd' and said they lent 'credence to unacceptable... antisemitic stereotypes'
- Hollings refused to apologize and never recanted before his 2019 death; the article notes that recent congressional primaries and a vote to strip military aid from Israel show many Democrats now share his skepticism of the U.S.-Israel relationship
Why it matters: Hollings was hounded out of polite discourse in 2004 for arguing the Iraq War was fought partly for Israel — but as the article notes, recent primaries and a congressional vote to strip Israeli military aid show that critique is now moving from career-ending heresy to Democratic Party orthodoxy.
