In New York yesterday, Sheldon Adelson, the casino mogul who’s currently the Republican’s biggest donor, told a panel at Yeshiva University that the United States should drop a nuclear weapon on Iran.

Adelson was asked whether he “would support negotiations with Iran if they stopped all enrichment of uranium.”

“Negotiate?” he replied. “What are we going to negotiate about? What I would say is, ‘You see that desert out there? I want to show you something.’ Then you pick up your cellphone — even at traveling rates, what do they call them? Roaming charges — you pick your cellphone and you call somewhere in Nebraska and you say, ‘Let her go.'”

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“So there’s an atomic weapon and ballistic missiles that goes into the middle [of the Iranian] desert and doesn’t hurt a soul,” he continued. “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.”

His statement was met by great applause.

“If you truly want peace,” he said, “it’s very simple to say to all their henchmen, ‘Lay off the terrorism for five years,’ and they’ll come to the Jews and say, ‘There’ll be no terrorism for five or ten years, we’ll throw out the books that teach the children that Jews are descended from swine and apes.’ Then maybe we can have peace.”

Adelson’s remarks about Iran begin at 3:01 in the video below.

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[Sheldon Adelson via Wikimedia Commons]