Bibi’s Wile E. Coyote moment
Wile E. Coyote, outsmarted himself again
You didn’t think you were gonna get away without seeing Bibi Netanyahu’s Wile E. Coyote moment during his UN speech today, did you? Look at the picture, Bibi’s even glaring a bit like the coyote after he’s been outsmarted by the Roadrunner. Someone (Bibi himself?) in the day and age of Powerpoint presentations, thought of the great idea of sending their boss up to the lectern of the world’s most respected international body with a sharpie and a cartoon version of a nuclear bomb. I suppose they thought the simplicity of the gesture might impress. Instead it’s backfired as any simpleton could’ve told them it would.
Further, Bibi made a critical error in drawing his “red line” at the 90% enrichment level. He meant to draw it BELOW that line since presumably Israel would want to attack Iran BEFORE it achieved weapons grade uranium fuel. If Israel attacked Iran AFTER it secured enough fuel to make a bomb it would defeat the purpose, no?
Dr. Ibrahim Soudy says
What I think we should be talking about is “If Israel wants to attack Iran because it is an existential threat, then why would not they just show us how capable and independent they are and go ahead and do it? Why are they going around making all this noise while a simple smart thing to do is to surprise Iran with an attack? Or is it just an attack but it has to be done FOR them instead of BY them?
Tibor says
You are right – there is a lot of game-playing here. The big hope of course is to get the results without having to attack and these threats induce alternative pressure modes as the economic sanctions (which keep expanding). Given the already restless population there (the “Iranian Spring” is still in an explosion-waiting-to-happen state) they might actually work despite all the skepticism. It all begins to look like a Hollywood movie in which the “saving the world” act happens in the very last minute and until then everybody is kept in suspense.
Deïr Yassin says
Haha, Twitter is going wild with Bibi the Clown.
Here are some good alternatives:
link to pbs.twimg.com
Red Line or Green Line ?
link to oi48.tinypic.com
iain says
And there is this one too:
link to js-kit.com
Robert says
Good catch, Richard. Hilarious… as is most of what the Yahoo says…
mary says
Bibi is too scared to attack Iran without US support, and Obama isn’t about to cooperate so close to the election (and I strongly suspect not at all). So I stopped worrying about it and became amused. Netanyahu has become ridiculous. I don’t think I’m alone in seeing this.
He grossly miscalculated, thinking he would finally get US backing to do what he’d been wanting to do for years. All that whining, almost 20 years of twaddle about how Iran was just a breath or two away from possessing a nuclear weapon. We know what it’s all about, anyway. The world is not endangered by Iran possessing a nuke, and in fact may be a bit safer if that were to happen since there would be a country capable of holding Israel in check. Israel knows this and doesn’t want to give up its title of Neighborhood Bully.
Looks to me, in fact, like things are going to hell in a handbasket for Bibi.
David says
This is the bookend to Colin Powell at the UN a decade ago.
lifelong says
Striking images (from 2007) of the biggest Jew hater in the world….. meeting with Jews.
Bob Mann says
That’s Neturei Karta. They have met with one another on several occasions, with great amity. I’d encourage you to learn more about that group.
Bob Mann says
The 90% line on his bomb does not refer to 90%-enriched uranium. It is supposed to show Iran nine-tenths the way along the road to a bomb.
link to guardian.co.uk
Richard Silverstein says
Ah, so our only disagreement is where we are on the field…at the 20 yard line or 10 or whether we’re making a goal line stand, to use Bibi’s earlier sports lingo.
Bob makes a point says
Bob: “It is supposed to show Iran nine-tenths the way along the road to a bomb.”
Which is, of course, exactly what Bibi said about Iran waaaaaaaay back in 1992.
Apparently the Iranians have been stuck at that 9/10th point for, ohhhh, 20 years now.
Maybe they have no intention of budging from it?
After all, that’s exactly what the NIE’s have been saying……
Tim Griffith says
Richard,
The poll that’s driving Nutty @Netanyahu cartoon bomb crazy!
“Poll shows 65 percent of Jews supporting Obama. Israel comes in at a distant 4th among issues that respondents list as “most important” to them in US presidential election, AJC finds.”
JPost link to j.mp
Davey says
First — what image is Lifelong referring to?
Second — 90% before or after… it doesn’t matter because this is show business. It would have been neat if he had held his diagram upside down or dropped it, something to break with the ugly cant. Ah, can’t have everything. I should be grateful for the little we do get.
Sim says
Clearly Yom Kipur was a waste of a day for you Richard, you will get another chance next year.
Richard Silverstein says
There’s no halacha that says Jews who endanger the existence of the State of Israel deserve a pass from my pen. As for you, you’ll get another chance here too if you post again. But just barely.
Dr. Ibrahim Soudy says
Would you like to tell us how the day be better spent so that it is not wasted? I am not Jewish but would like to learn, please. Also, given the fact that Bibi is talking all that much about Iran nukes, while he is sitting on a complete arsenal of them and even refusing to join the NPT, do you think that Bibi has not wasted HIS Yom Kipor?
Deïr Yassin says
“Bibi is talking about Iran nukes, while he is sitting on a complete arsenal of them”
Haha, Carlos Latuff draw that picture perfectly:
link to twitpic.com
Carl says
Richard, I am loath to correct you, but it isn’t Wile E. Coyote. The picture clearly shows that Netanyahu is Elmer Fudd, otherwise retired from Looney Tunes.
Richard Silverstein says
Pick your favorite cartoon character…
David Nelson says
Richard, to re-state a point i have seen periodically made around the net over the last couple of months (and probably even here), the far right in politics is unyielding everywhere regardless of nationality. Their lack of sway leads to a fragile international order. Compromise is not the same thing as capitulation, but listening to ultra-conservatives would lead one to believe otherwise. “Capitulation” is weakness, “compromise” is strength through reason.
A large consensus of analysts agree Iran is highly unlikely to agree to a complete cessation of its enrichment program. Israel will do what it wants, but the continued insistence on Israel’s part that Iran give up its civilian nuclear program altogether is a sure-fire recipe for eventual conflict. Somewhere between 20% and 5% a compromise needs to be found if there is hope to head off this conflict.
The NPT is the proper framework to address this issue. Israel is the one seeking exception from international norms on the nuclear issue.
Shoded Yam says
That picture he’s holding looks mighty familiar. I seem to recall seeing this in the ACME Catalog. The ACME Company. Yes. The people that brought you Rocket Powered Rollerskates and Giant Roadrunner-Crushing Mousetraps are proud to present another fine product that goes BOOM! What a tool. lol
Davey says
Yes Yes — it was those innovative geniuses at ACME. First, the internet, then this chart.
Fred Plester says
When Bibi hits the after-dinner lecture circuit, he’s not going to command the same fee scale as Anthony Charles Lynton Blair, is he?
Fred Plester says
The diagnosis is in:
link to dailymail.co.uk
Looking at Bibi, you’d almost think that it was Blair’s Hubris Syndrome in the well water.
David says
My grandmother used to say: “When you don’t have anything smart to say, just shut up”. Got it Richard?
Richard Silverstein says
Your grandmother knew you pretty well didn’t she? But you didn’t honor her wisdom. So I will now by shutting you up here. Or at least I’ll restrain you by moderating you.
sim says
Richard, David is entitled to his views. If you provide a reply service then we all have a right to our opinions regardless of yours. I read your articles although I disagree with your line of thinking. I hope your shoes are big enough to accommodate us all if not then be a dictator and shut me up too.
Richard Silverstein says
You have a right to your opinions & I have a right to publish them or not. Read the comment rules. They say stick to substance & not disputing my editorial judgment/s. I’m not interested in hearing what you or anyone says about how I deal with the comments of others. And that will be the end of it.
Andy says
Some honesty from Bibi would be appreciated: “We want Iran taken out so that we will have a freer hand to further dispossess the Palestinians.” But I’m sure that most of the world has this figured out.
Jay Green says
Richard, what did you think of Ahmadinejad’s speech?
Richard Silverstein says
See Mana Neyestani’s cartoon for my impression. I watched a portion of his Charlie Rose interview which I thought rather pathetic, but generally less harmful to world order than Netanyahu’s.
David Foner says
Richard,
I’m interested to know at the end, do you think that Iran possessing a nuclear weapon is something you can live with ? Netanyahu is probably the worst prime minister we had and he made many mistakes with Iran and elsewhere. However, the danger of Iran having a bomb seems to be something to be addressed. Even those who think it would stop Israel “BEING A BULLY” should be concerned about what could happen next : A scenario of a nuclear bomb to al kaida comes to mind.
You can argue a lot about whether Israel is a threat to the region, but you certainly can’t see it as a threat to Europe or to the USA.
Davey says
I would be — am — more concerned about the Russians than Iran. Or an unbridled revolutionary Pakistan. Besides, Iran is not a threat to Europe or the US. It cannot deliver nuclear warheads such distances. oThe immediate concern is Israel of course, but Israel has capabilities to retaliate so that is a balance of power that must surely impress the Iranians. And nukes in the hands of Hamas or Hezbollah would redound to Iran just as well, so that is out. These fears are magnified now to precipitate war but they are unjustified.
David Foner says
OK, so you advocate that everybody sits tight and do nothing while Iran goes nuclear ? Iran can’t yet deliver nuclear devices to Europe or the US, but the emphasis is on the word YET. What will you think when they will be able to do so ?
Richard Silverstein says
Israel is at least as likely to launch nuclear weapons on Europe as Iran is. You don’t believe Israel would do such a thing (nor do I). Nor will Iran. The fact that you trust Israel more than you do Iran confirms the huge racist blind spot you have.
Davey says
What is your thinking on this? Are the Iranians worried every day that the French, Americans, Pakistanis or Indians are going to launch a nuclear holocaust on them? Why do you have to fret and not the Iranians? You attribute to these people a psychology different from your own, I take it. Mutually Assured Destruction would not impress Iranians because they are lunatics and the Americans are not, isn’t this it? They are not lunatics and just about any nation state is not completely bonkers, except maybe Israel. This is really typical Western thinking — we’re ok but those guys aren’t. It’s ok for Israel to be armed to the teeth with nukes but not Iran because somehow you trust Israel. The record is clear that Israel, for example, should not be trusted at all.
David asks some questions says
df: “I’m interested to know at the end, do you think that Iran possessing a nuclear weapon is something you can live with ?”
Yes, a nuke-armed Iran can be lived with,just as a nuke-armed Stalinist regime could be lived with, and a Maoist nuclear-armed regime could be lived with.
DF: “However, the danger of Iran having a bomb seems to be something to be addressed.”
Indeed true, but the “addressing” should not be of the form of Let’s All Attack Them Now So They Can’t Make Those Nukes Even If They Wanted To.
Because – dud’oh! – if you do that then you pretty much make it certain that they WILL makes nukes.
DF: “Even those who think it would stop Israel “BEING A BULLY” should be concerned about what could happen next : A scenario of a nuclear bomb to al kaida comes to mind.”
Only to a deluded mind. After all, the Mullahs wouldn’t go to all that trouble and danger (not to mention expense) to make nukes and then GIVE THOSE NUKES AWAY.
If the Iranians do want to make nukes (and that’s still one big IF) then it because IRAN wants those nukes. It isn’t do this so that it can give al Qaeda a spiffy birthday present.
Heck, not even Pakistan (a vastly more unpredictable regime with very close links to al Qaeda) would contemplate that…..
Jay Green says
I see.
What do you think about IRG involvement in Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq and the gulf? Don’t you perceive that as a harmful to world order?
Richard Silverstein says
And you think the way to counter Iran’s efforts is by nuking it back to the Stone Age? You think threats & strangulation will work? Sorry. Has strangling Gaza worked as a policy? It’s actually maintained Hamas in power & guaranteed no Palestinian unity government which could negotiate an agreement with Israel (which is precisely what Israeli ultranationalists want). Is it what you want?
bluto says
Bibi’s Crystal Clear Confusion
Tangled up in his own lies, Netanyahu has only furthered the exposure and outing of his attempted hoax on Iran
Like Mr Silverstein’s original and well-founded confusion over Bibi’s red line he drew on his cartoon – Israel itself is confused. I actually think it is Bibi himself who is most confused of all – it’s really just problem that he can’t keep his lies straight – or perhaps r isn’t smart enough to.
Yediot Aharonot, a popular Israeli newspaper, had it’s front page and editorial staff in confusion as well – they just were surprised that Netanyahu was going to draw Israel’s red line at Iran being free to have a stockpile of essentially weapons grade enriched Uranium, approx 15 minutes of further centrifuge spinning away from being fully baked and ready to shape into a warhead.
Bibi’s cartoon, based on lies, is not only confusing to EVERYBODY – it is exposing his own fraud and lies. Can’t make this up
==
from today’s NYTimes, the inimitable Isabel Kerscher trying to rescue Bibi’s crystal clear show-and-tell cartoon:
link to nytimes.com
But on Friday, Yediot Aharonot, a popular newspaper, published a drastically different interpretation. It assumed, erroneously, that Mr. Netanyahu had been referring not to progress made by Iran, but to actual percentages of uranium enrichment in his diagram, now known as the “Bibi Bomb,” a reference to Mr. Netanyahu’s nickname.
Iran, which insists that its nuclear program is for purely peaceful civilian purposes, has a stockpile of medium-enriched uranium, or uranium enriched to the level of 20 percent purity. To build a bomb, it would have to convert that uranium to a much higher purity, above 90 percent, a relatively short process.
“On the assumption that we are talking about enrichment percentages, the Iranians have by now reached levels somewhere between 3.5 percent and 20 percent today,” Nahum Barnea, a leading Yediot Aharonot columnist, wrote on the front page. “Netanyahu said last night that they had reached 70 percent, a considerable leap. It seems to me that he is the first one in the world to name such a number.”
“Netanyahu draws his red line at a 90 percent level. This level is very close, perhaps too close, to a level that enables the production of a bomb,” Mr. Barnea continued.
Genie says