Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) urged the Trump administration to offer clearer incentives, including favorable trade and tariff treatment, to countries that normalize relations with Israel.

“The United States needs to make a clearer statement to the world that, ‘If you join the Abraham Accords, this is what happens to trade. We change the rules on what we do, on trade, on tariff, on relationships — it’s different for this group, so wouldn’t you like to join this club?’” Lankford said at an American Jewish Committee event in Washington marking the five-year anniversary of the Abraham Accords. “I think that’s something that we’ve yet to define clearly as an American government and as a State Department and our Commerce [Department], and I think it’s an area that is unfinished business.”

He also urged other countries in the region not to give Hamas the result it sought, through the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, in scuttling regional normalization efforts and isolating Israel globally.

“I think one of the biggest challenges right now is communicating to other nations, ‘Don’t show Hamas they were successful based on what your behavior changes now, and your relationship with Israel in the future. Don’t allow that terrorist extremist group to be the one that speaks for you and your nation,’” Lankford said. “If you say you oppose extremism, then don’t support their methods.”

He said that’s “a hard conversation to have among friends. I think it’s also difficult because we have broken relationships with multiple nations. That means sitting down with people you don’t normally sit down with and saying, ‘How do we get past this?’ And those are not simple conversations.”

Lankford said that offering favorable trade terms and offering a “package of what it means to be a part of this club” would help “smooth some of that.”

Asked by Jewish Insider about the Israeli attack on Hamas leaders in Qatar, Lankford said that Israel has been “very, very clear. It has been for decades. If you kill us and … [in] an act of terrorism, we don’t care where you are anywhere in the world, we’re going to come after you.”

“Their statement is pretty clear: ‘We had an opportunity, we’re going to take the opportunity,’” Lankford said. “An air strike may not be the most elegant way to be able to do that. And so I think there’s some disagreement on that. There’s not disagreements on, if someone is trying to kill you — it’s been American policy as well — we’re going to find you.”

He added that Qatar is an ally of the United States, but also of Iran.

On the issue of recent Israeli strikes on Syria, Lankford largely defended Israel, saying that Israel had been clear that it not allow Turkey to take over Syria and that it would protect the Druze population. He said that Israel’s focus on the atrocities against the Druze had raised that issue to global attention.

“Syria and its disjointed government at this point, as they’re trying to be able to form, has either allowed or encouraged the attack on the Druze in the south, that can’t be allowed,” Lankford said. “The leadership in Syria needs to control its own military and militant factions to be able to make sure they’re not slaughtering the Alawites, as it was allowed just a few weeks before that, or the Druze.”

Lankford, who recently visited Lebanon, said he remains encouraged by the progress that it has made toward eliminating Hezbollah, particularly setting an end-of-year deadline to disarm the terrorist group and moving to secure its banking system to prevent Hezbollah’s financing.

Lankford said he believes Lebanon is on track to meet the deadline the country set to disarm Hezbollah.

“I think that’s one of the greatest opportunities for peaceful connections between two neighbors that say they don’t want war with each other,” Lankford said, referring to potential relations and a stable, established border between Israel and Lebanon. “Good fences make good neighbors at times, and this is a good spot to be able to do that.”