Adelson: US should drop atomic bomb on Iran

American-Jewish billionaire blasts Obama over negotiations.

Sheldon Adelson Photo: Reuters

Las Vegas casino magnate and prominent Israel supporter Sheldon Adelson urged President Barack Obama on Tuesday to fire a nuclear weapon into Iran as a warning of what awaits the Islamic Republic if it continues to develop its nuclear program.

In an appearance on a Yeshiva University panel discussing the future of world Jewry, Adelson, who is best known in Israel as a backer of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the publisher of the freebie newspaper Israel Hayom, said the US ought to threaten Tehran with being "wiped out."

Footage of Adelson's comments was first posted by the liberal blogger Philip Weiss.

When asked about Western strategy in nuclear talks with Iran, Adelson replied: "What are we going to negotiate about? I would say ‘Listen, you see that desert out there, I want to show you something.’ …You pick up your cell phone and you call somewhere in Nebraska and you say, ‘OK let it go.’ And so there’s an atomic weapon, goes over ballistic missiles, the middle of the desert, that doesn’t hurt a soul. Maybe a couple of rattlesnakes, and scorpions, or whatever."

"Then you say, ‘See! The next one is in the middle of Tehran. So, we mean business. You want to be wiped out? Go ahead and take a tough position and continue with your nuclear development. You want to be peaceful? Just reverse it all,  and we will guarantee you that you can have a nuclear power plant for electricity purposes, energy purposes’," Adelson said.

Adelson, who donated tens of millions of dollars to defeated Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney during the most recent campaign, criticized the Obama administration's willingness to engage the Iranians diplomatically."[It's] the worst negotiating tactic I could ever imagine, my entire life," he said.

"Because you can’t get anything. He’s not saying to them, Roll back your entire program and show that you’re willing to be peaceful. So, roll it all back… and we’ll roll back the sanctions…. What is that, a game of chicken, who’s going to blink first?"

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