Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is not a linguist.

“Everything that starts with ‘Al’ in the Middle East is bad news,” Graham said at a dinner in Boston on Monday with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, according to investigative journalist Uri Blau.

Graham was referencing the Arabic word for “the.”

“Al-Qaida, Al-Nusra, Al-Qaida in the Arab Peninsula,” he continued. He went on to discuss U.S. relations with Israel and the Arab world, threatening the funding of the United Nations if it “marginalized” Israel.

Graham has been considering a presidential run, and recently laughed while saying that he has so much pro-Israel funding that he would assemble an “all-Jewish cabinet.”

“If I put together a finance team that will make me financially competitive enough to stay in this thing…I may have the first all-Jewish cabinet in America because of the pro-Israel funding,” Graham reportedly said, according to the Wall Street Journal.