"U.S. soothes upset Netanyahu with shipment of ballistic missiles,” a headline read on The Onion on July 14. Hours later, Haaretz reported that the exact thing happened in real life. Yes, oddly enough, satire became reality last week.
After the U.S. and several other countries reached a deal with Iran last week on the Iranian nuclear program, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was one of the deal’s most vocal opponents. So The Onion joked that President Barack Obama decided to send Israel more missiles to make Netanyahu happy.
“Bibi always gets a little cranky when he sees us talking to Iran, but a few dozen short-range surface-to-surface missiles usually cheer him right up,” a fake State Department spokesperson, named Daniel Goldman, ‘told’ The Onion. “Of course, we try not to spoil him by giving him a whole new tactical ballistics delivery system every single time he throws a fit, but our guy’s pretty good at getting his way. At least we’ll have a couple months of peace and quiet around here.”
Then on July 15, Haaretz reported that Obama offered Netanyahu upgrades for the Israel Defence Forces after the deal, citing a senior U.S. official. The official said that Obama called up Netanyahu personally to take about the Iran deal. Netanyahu didn’t respond to the offer.
Haaretz actually picked up on the Onion “scoop,” writing about the coincidence on Monday.
While this coincidence might be funny, it does say a lot about politicians, especially if their actions can be predicted by a satirical news site.
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