Sen. Lindsey Graham spent his last weeks building a concrete plan for the Israeli-Saudi normalization. He spoke regularly with President Donald Trump and several senior American, Israeli, and Saudi officials about this diplomatic endeavor.

Graham planned to visit Israel and Saudi Arabia in August, then begin formal negotiations after Israel’s October election and the U.S. midterm elections in November. He believed that any agreement needed a meaningful Palestinian component to secure sufficient Democratic Senate support for the approval of a possible U.S.-Saudi defense treaty. For Graham, the period after the confrontation with Iran offered a rare strategic opening that Washington could not afford to waste.