Monday, 13 May 2024 — Geopolitical Economy Report

Ben Norton

US Senator Lindsey Graham insisted in a TV interview that Israel should drop nuclear bombs on Gaza, where over 2 million Palestinian civilians, including 1 million children, are trapped by a siege.

US Senator Lindsey Graham argued in a live TV interview that Israel should drop nuclear bombs on Gaza.

More than 2 million Palestinian civilians are trapped in the densely populated strip, including 1 million children.

Israel has imposed what its Defense Minister Yoav Gallant referred to as a “complete siege” of Gaza, preventing civilians from leaving as Tel Aviv has brutally bombed the strip.

To justify his proposal for Israel to nuke Gaza, Graham cited the US atomic bombing of Japan, which he insisted was necessary. However, the US government admitted that the nuclear attack on Japan was not needed to end World War II.

Graham, a prominent member of the Republican Party, made these remarks in a May 12 interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press”.

“So when we were faced with destruction as a nation after Pearl Harbor, fighting the Germans and the Japanese, we decided to end the war by bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki with nuclear weapons. That was the right decision”, Graham said.

“Give Israel the bombs they need to end the war they can’t afford to lose”, he added.

Later, Graham asked, “Why is it okay for America to drop two nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end their existential threat war? Why was it okay for us to do that? I thought it was okay”.

“To Israel, do whatever you have to do to survive as a Jewish state”, he declared, before repeating, “Whatever you have to do!”

1946 US government report admitted “Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped”

Graham’s claims about Japan are contradicted by a report published in 1946 by the US Department of War (which would later be rebranded as the Department of Defense).

In its Strategic Bombing Survey, the US Department of War studied the effects of its air strikes in WWII. The department concluded that “Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped”, writing:

…
it seems clear that, even without the atomic bombing attacks, air supremacy over Japan could have exerted sufficient pressure to bring about unconditional surrender and obviate the need for invasion.

Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts, and supported by the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved, it is the Survey’s opinion that certainly prior to 31 December 1945, and in all probability prior to 1 November 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated.

Geopolitical Economy Report has previously explained:

The nuclear strikes on Japan represented a political decision taken by the United States, aimed squarely at the Soviet Union; it was the first strike in the Cold War.

In August 1945, the USSR was preparing to invade Japan to overthrow its ruling fascist regime, which had been allied with Nazi Germany – which the Soviet Red Army had also just defeated in the European theater of the war.

Washington was concerned that, if the Soviets defeated Japanese fascism and
liberated Tokyo like they had in Berlin, then Japan’s post-fascist government could become an ally of the Soviet Union and could adopt a socialist government.

The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, therefore, were not so much aimed at the Japanese fascists as they were aimed at the Soviet communists.

Israeli minister repeatedly calls to drop nuclear bombs on Gaza

Israel is the only country in West Asia that has nuclear weapons.

Israel has refused to publicly acknowledge that it has nukes, and it is not a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

In the 1970s, Israel offered to sell nuclear weapons to the racist apartheid regime in South Africa.

In November 2023, Israel’s extreme-right Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu also proposed that his government could drop nuclear bombs on Gaza.

Eliyahu claimed “there is no such thing as uninvolved civilians in Gaza”, and according to the Times of Israel newspaper, he stated that “the northern [Gaza] Strip has no right to exist”.

The top Israeli minister claimed that people who wave Palestinian flags “shouldn’t continue living on the face of the earth”.

He also called to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza, insisting, “They can go to Ireland or deserts; the monsters in Gaza should find a solution by themselves”.

In January 2024, Eliyahu repeated his call for Israel to nuke Gaza, boasting that they “know my position, even in the Hague they know my position”.

Eliyahu lives in an illegal West Bank settlement and has demanded that Israel annex the entire occupied Palestinian territory.