Bibi for president?

This Jerusalem Post headline might strike a bit too close to home, both for Republicans unhappy with their slate of candidates and those critical with U.S. politicians’ chumminess with the Israeli right: "GOP to nominate [Netanyahu] as US presidential candidate." No, it’s not breaking news — it’s the holiday of Purim, where Jews celebrate their ...

By , Middle East editor at Foreign Policy from 2013-2018.
David Vaaknin - Pool/Getty Images
David Vaaknin - Pool/Getty Images
David Vaaknin - Pool/Getty Images

This Jerusalem Post headline might strike a bit too close to home, both for Republicans unhappy with their slate of candidates and those critical with U.S. politicians' chumminess with the Israeli right: "GOP to nominate [Netanyahu] as US presidential candidate."

This Jerusalem Post headline might strike a bit too close to home, both for Republicans unhappy with their slate of candidates and those critical with U.S. politicians’ chumminess with the Israeli right: "GOP to nominate [Netanyahu] as US presidential candidate."

No, it’s not breaking news — it’s the holiday of Purim, where Jews celebrate their salvation from the ancient Persian empire and the evil Haman with a day of wine-drinking and general meshugana behavior. The Jerusalem Post‘s (hideous) website features an entire section of joke articles today that look as if they were torn straight from The Onion — one reports that Netanyahu’s wife’s infatuation with Madonna will likely delay a strike on Iran, and the headline of another reads: "World Bank: Tel Aviv world’s 3rd-largest Sudanese city"

But it’s the Bibi-for-president article that takes the cake. "How hard can it be to run a country of 300 million gentiles," fake Netanyahu asks. And a fake Republcian strategist actually makes a pretty convincing case about Netanyahu’s political strengths:

"Netanyahu has it all," a top GOP strategist said. "He has Romney’s economic credentials, Santorum’s conservative agenda, a kooky blonde third wife like Gingrich, and best of all, he just doesn’t like Obama."

Sarah Palin, eat your heart out.

David Kenner was Middle East editor at Foreign Policy from 2013-2018.

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