Bibi Mugshots

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears in 30-second TV spots in the Florida market, beginning this week, according to the Burns and Haberman Blog at Politico.com:

Bibi Netanyahu is not running a campaign in the US – it just looks that way in this new ad.

A spot featuring only the Israeli prime minister talking about Iran is set to hit the airwaves in select Florida markets tomorrow, a media tracking source confirms.

The spot is the work of a c4 called Secure America Now – which, thanks to its tax status, doesn’t have to disclose its donors.

A Republican involved with the project said its airing in Miami, West Palm Beach and Ft. Myers. The flight is ultimately going to be $1 million, the official said – a media-tracking source said about $400,000 has been placed so far.

Those markets house some of the state’s largest Jewish communities.

The spot comes just after Netanyahu, who all but endorsed Mitt Romney in Israel in July, appeared on “Meet the Press” and distanced himself a bit from the GOP candidate’s criticisms of President Obama, but also discussed Israel’s concern about a nuclear Iran.

The pollster for Secure America Now is John McLaughlin, who has worked with Netanyahu’s Likud Party.

Here’s a link to the article, which includes a video of the TV spot.

In early July, Grant Smith, writing for Antiwar.com, published an article severely implicating Netanyahu in a ring that smuggled a lot of nuclear weapon materials from the USA.  Mondoweiss picked up on Smith’s story three days later, in an article that contained this English translation of a Hebrew article on this, published in Ma’ariv:

According to FBI documents released by the United States, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was involved in smuggling in the 70s from the U.S. components of Israeli nuclear program, and assisted by the businessman Arnon Milchan, who according to previous publications was a former Mossad agent.

The documents, declassified in part by the FBI after partial classification removed, describe the findings of the investigation has been performed between the years 1985 to 2002 on about how a network of front companies a U.S. security firm illegally smuggled equipment used for weapons seeds out of the U.S..

Smith was interviewed later in July, by Scott Horton, for Antiwar Radio:

Netanyahu should not be injecting himself into our politics.  He should be Persona Non Grata in the United States.  As soon as he sets foot in the USA, after he leaves public office, he should be arrested.  He is infinitely more dangerous than Julian Assange.

I’ve made a handy WANTED poster:

Netanyahu wanted poster