The late Sen. Lindsey Graham entered our lives during the darkest chapter our family had ever known. This week, as we traveled to Washington for his funeral, we came not only to honor one of Israel’s most steadfast friends, but to remember a leader who stood beside our family — and whose example offers an urgent lesson for Israel and its relationship with the United States.
We first met Graham shortly after Oct. 7, 2023, when we believed our American Israeli son, Capt. Omer Neutra, had been taken hostage by Hamas. We later learned that Omer had been murdered during the attack and that his body had been taken into Gaza.
From the earliest days of the war, Graham was among the strongest and most consistent voices in the Senate calling for the hostages to be brought home and standing firmly with Israel. He spoke with clarity about Iran’s central role in supporting Hamas and understood that Hamas could not remain in power if the region was ever to achieve lasting stability.
Within weeks of the attacks, he led a bipartisan Senate delegation to Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Egypt. He believed Hamas must not be allowed to destroy the historic possibility of normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia. He also recognized that building a regional coalition against Iran and its proxies was essential to creating a safer and more stable Middle East.
But the lesson Graham leaves behind is not only about foreign policy. It is about how meaningful change is achieved in a democracy.
When he believed in a cause, he fully embraced the democratic process required to advance it. He worked across party lines, sought consensus whenever possible, and used his voice, relationships, and influence to bring others with him.
That was how he approached the effort to bring the hostages home.
He never told us what we wanted to hear simply to make us feel better. He told us what he believed. He never offered false hope, but he always made time for us, listened carefully, and treated our concerns with honesty and respect.
During one meeting with hostage families, he said something we have never forgotten: “I wish you were all my constituents.”
As our family’s journey unfolded, from fighting to bring Omer home, to learning the devastating truth of his murder, to finally bringing him home for burial, we tried to follow the same principle.
From the beginning, we made a conscious decision that the hostage crisis could never belong to only one political party.
On Oct. 15, 2023, Donald Trump called us as a former president and private citizen. We thanked him for reaching out, but we also shared what would become one of the guiding principles of our advocacy: The hostages had to remain a humanitarian cause, not a partisan one, especially during a presidential election. He immediately agreed, and we appreciated that he honored that principle throughout the months that followed.
We carried that commitment through every stage of our advocacy. We worked closely with the Biden administration and later with the Trump administration. We met with Republican and Democratic senators, members of Congress, governors, administration officials, and leaders from across the political spectrum.
We participated in the Republican National Convention while proudly supporting fellow hostage-family advocates Rachel Goldberg-Polin and Jon Polin when they addressed the Democratic National Convention.
Our message was the same in every room: bringing the hostages home was not a Republican cause or a Democratic cause. It was a human cause.
That approach was not merely symbolic. Preserving broad, bipartisan American support was an essential part of the effort to bring every hostage home. The U.S. possessed unique influence with regional partners, international actors, and Israel itself. Keeping that influence united and above party politics mattered.
Now that every hostage has finally been brought home, the same principle must guide Israel’s future.
Israel cannot afford to become a partisan cause in the U.S.
Political polarization has deepened, and Israel is increasingly discussed as though it belongs to one side of America’s political divide. Some may see short-term political advantages in that alignment. But support that depends upon the fortunes of one party is not durable support.
Elections are won and lost. Congressional majorities change. Administrations come and go. The alliance between the U.S. and Israel must be strong enough to endure all of them.
Those who care about Israel and understand its crucial role in representing American interests and national security in the region cannot limit their engagement to the political leaders and voters with whom they already agree. They cannot write off an entire party, generation, or community because the conversations have become more difficult. Israel and its American supporters must continue building relationships across the political spectrum, particularly in the places where support has weakened.
This does not mean abandoning principles, overlooking antisemitism, or pretending that every policy disagreement is insignificant. Bipartisanship does not require silence. It requires engagement, political maturity, and the recognition that Israel’s long-term security is more important than any temporary partisan advantage.
The campaign to bring the hostages home demonstrated what becomes possible when leaders from both parties rally around a common moral purpose. The challenges ahead — confronting Iran and its proxies, expanding regional partnerships, protecting Israel’s security, and strengthening the U.S.-Israel alliance — will require that same breadth of commitment.
Rebuilding and sustaining bipartisan support must therefore become a national priority for Israel. It is not a public-relations preference. It is a strategic necessity.
That is the lesson we carry with us from Graham.
Throughout our family’s journey, we tried to follow the example he set. We believed that if a cause was important enough, it deserved the support of everyone willing to advance it.
I AM A PALESTINIAN ACTIVIST. HERE’S WHY I’M MOURNING LINDSEY GRAHAM
Some causes are simply bigger than politics.
Preserving America’s bipartisan commitment to Israel is one of them.
Orna and Ronen Neutra are the parents of Capt. Omer Neutra, an American Israeli military officer who was murdered by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, and whose body was held in Gaza for more than two years. Throughout the hostage crisis, they advocated Omer and all the hostages, working with leaders from both political parties to help bring every hostage home.