Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu assumed a professorial role and – turning the UN General Assembly Thursday into an "Into Nuclear Physics" class – illustrated through the use of a rudimentary graph where during Iran's bomb making process a thick red line needed to be drawn."Where should a red line should be drawn?" Netanyahu said, taking out his pen in the UN General Assembly. "A red line should be drawn right here," he continued, drawing with a thick marker a red line toward the top of a simply sketched bomb.
"Before Iran completes the second stage of nuclear enrichment necessary to make a bomb," he said, continuing his answer of where that line should be drawn. "Before Iran completes a second stage of nuclear enrichment necessary to make a bomb, before Iran gets to a point where it is a few months away, or a few weeks away, from amassing enough enriched uranium to make a nuclear weapon."
Some will dismiss the bomb graph as a juvenile gimmick. One blogger unfavorably predisposed to Netanyahu, for instance, tweeted "Oy vey on Netanyahu's diagram of cartoon-like bomb." And then again, she wrote, "Netanyahu secret plot to make Iran leaders keel over with laughter? Is he mocking himself?"
No, he was neither mocking himself nor aiming his drawing at the Iranian leaders. Gimmick or not, the chart served one purpose – and it served it successfully – getting people's attention.
The annual UN General Assembly is a show. Speaker after speaker rises to the podium to give lengthy, dry speeches on their take of the world's problems. Generally, nobody but the media in the speaker's own country cares a whit about what their leader said.
Had Netanyahu sufficed with the basic lesson on bomb making that he gave, few would have paid attention. His words on enriched uranium and explosive devices would have been forgotten tomorrow. His chart, and the point his chart was used to illustrate, will be remembered – and that was the purpose of his trip to the US and his speech.
When Netanyahu decided late last month to travel to the UN and talk to the General Assembly about Iran, the question some asked was why?
Why go? Who was his audience? Was he really going to the UN General Assembly, a forum stacked up against Israel, to try and convince anyone in that hall? Had not all of the leaders sitting there heard all the arguments before? Did anybody really believe he was going to reveal some new intelligence information, triggering a world-wide "wow" moment with some new, astounding revelation?
No, he went there to appeal directly to international public opinion, but to do so he had to get that public's attention. The world was not exactly tuned in at 1.30 pm Eastern Standard Time to live streaming of Netanyahu's address to the UN.
How could, using a turn of phrase President Barack Obama employed this week to discuss Israel's protestations about Iran, Netanyahu stand out from all the background noise at the UN. How could he set his speech – and the message he wanted to convey – apart from that of Obama, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, even Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas?
Simple, through the use of props.
Netanyahu loves props, and has used them repeatedly during major presentations to grab attention. At a press conference in April to mark three years of his government, he drew a tree on a sketch board to illustrate the twin storms of economic crisis and revolutions buffeting the state.
At his AIPAC speech in Washington in March he waved an exchange of letters from the World Jewish Congress to the US War Department during the Holocaust to prove a point that ultimately Israel needed to rely on itself. And at the UN 2009 he unfurled the original blueprints of Auschwitz to blast the UN for allowing Ahmadinejad – a Holocaust denier -- speak.
Netanyahu broke no new ground in his speech to the UN on Thursday. In fact some of what he said, for instance the clash between modernity and a medieval frame of mind, he said in 2009 in the very same UN hall.
And Netanyahu probably didn't convince any minds sitting in the hall.
But he did ensure that a picture of him drawing a red line on a sketch board illustration of a bomb will be on the front page of numerous newspapers Friday morning. And that was the prime minister's goal at the UN: to make clear to the international public what he means when he says a red line. The best way to do that is to lug a sketch board, a graphic, and a squeaky red marker into the UN to literally illustrate a point.
The illustration – and the image of the prime minster with his pen – will remain in the mind far after what he actually said is forgotten. And that is one way to sear an idea into peoples' minds.
"Before Iran completes the second stage of nuclear enrichment necessary to make a bomb," he said, continuing his answer of where that line should be drawn. "Before Iran completes a second stage of nuclear enrichment necessary to make a bomb, before Iran gets to a point where it is a few months away, or a few weeks away, from amassing enough enriched uranium to make a nuclear weapon."
Some will dismiss the bomb graph as a juvenile gimmick. One blogger unfavorably predisposed to Netanyahu, for instance, tweeted "Oy vey on Netanyahu's diagram of cartoon-like bomb." And then again, she wrote, "Netanyahu secret plot to make Iran leaders keel over with laughter? Is he mocking himself?"
No, he was neither mocking himself nor aiming his drawing at the Iranian leaders. Gimmick or not, the chart served one purpose – and it served it successfully – getting people's attention.
The annual UN General Assembly is a show. Speaker after speaker rises to the podium to give lengthy, dry speeches on their take of the world's problems. Generally, nobody but the media in the speaker's own country cares a whit about what their leader said.
Had Netanyahu sufficed with the basic lesson on bomb making that he gave, few would have paid attention. His words on enriched uranium and explosive devices would have been forgotten tomorrow. His chart, and the point his chart was used to illustrate, will be remembered – and that was the purpose of his trip to the US and his speech.
When Netanyahu decided late last month to travel to the UN and talk to the General Assembly about Iran, the question some asked was why?
Why go? Who was his audience? Was he really going to the UN General Assembly, a forum stacked up against Israel, to try and convince anyone in that hall? Had not all of the leaders sitting there heard all the arguments before? Did anybody really believe he was going to reveal some new intelligence information, triggering a world-wide "wow" moment with some new, astounding revelation?
No, he went there to appeal directly to international public opinion, but to do so he had to get that public's attention. The world was not exactly tuned in at 1.30 pm Eastern Standard Time to live streaming of Netanyahu's address to the UN.
How could, using a turn of phrase President Barack Obama employed this week to discuss Israel's protestations about Iran, Netanyahu stand out from all the background noise at the UN. How could he set his speech – and the message he wanted to convey – apart from that of Obama, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, even Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas?
Simple, through the use of props.
Netanyahu loves props, and has used them repeatedly during major presentations to grab attention. At a press conference in April to mark three years of his government, he drew a tree on a sketch board to illustrate the twin storms of economic crisis and revolutions buffeting the state.
At his AIPAC speech in Washington in March he waved an exchange of letters from the World Jewish Congress to the US War Department during the Holocaust to prove a point that ultimately Israel needed to rely on itself. And at the UN 2009 he unfurled the original blueprints of Auschwitz to blast the UN for allowing Ahmadinejad – a Holocaust denier -- speak.
Netanyahu broke no new ground in his speech to the UN on Thursday. In fact some of what he said, for instance the clash between modernity and a medieval frame of mind, he said in 2009 in the very same UN hall.
And Netanyahu probably didn't convince any minds sitting in the hall.
But he did ensure that a picture of him drawing a red line on a sketch board illustration of a bomb will be on the front page of numerous newspapers Friday morning. And that was the prime minister's goal at the UN: to make clear to the international public what he means when he says a red line. The best way to do that is to lug a sketch board, a graphic, and a squeaky red marker into the UN to literally illustrate a point.
The illustration – and the image of the prime minster with his pen – will remain in the mind far after what he actually said is forgotten. And that is one way to sear an idea into peoples' minds.