The use of visual aids is not new to the UN. In 1962, during the Cuban missile crisis, Adlai Stevenson, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, publicly displayed for the first time aerial photographs of Soviet missiles in Cuba. In 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell presented satellite images and a vial containing white powder intended to look like anthrax in order to make his point that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. In 2009, then-Libyan leader Muammar Khaddafi held a copy of the UN Charter aloft, tore it up, and dramatically tossed it aside during his UN address.
Over the years, Netanyahu has shown a propensity for utilizing visual aids. For example, in 2009 he brandished a copy of the blueprints from Auschwitz as he denounced Ahmadinejad’s statements that the Holocaust never happened.
In retrospect, the Bibi Bomb was a perfect public relations tool. With his red marker, Netanyahu displayed a stroke of PR genius. On the international stage, with the world watching, his explosive visual aid and magical pen got the entire world talking about the threat of a nuclear Iran.
N. Aaron Troodler is an attorney and a principal of Paul Revere Public Relations, a public relations and political consulting firm. Visit him on the web at www.PaulReverePR.com or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/troodler.