Much of what I've read recently suggests that he simply doesn't have the experience or political acuity for the job. Nor does he appear to have a Karl Rove type handy to prevent such blundering.

What a fucking dumbass. I could put it more politely but it wouldn't be as accurate.

The problem with this kind of idiotic hate-filled rhetoric is these kinds of leaders seem to forget that Israel takes these threats very seriously. It's not just a political game to them; wars of extermination are nothing new to Israelis. But I guess Iranian extremists never learned the lesson Syria, Egypt, and Jordan learned. Yapping off about pushing them "into the sea" may get you points at home, but you better fucking believe there are consequences.

On the more legal scale, a clearcut violation of UN Charter, esp Article 2.

Zurn,

This could be a dumb move but I'm not sure it's clearly one.

If Israel gets nervous and strikes against nuclear production facilities, this will help the Iranian government, popularity-wise, especially if there are there's a lot of colalteral damage. It might not help Iran with you and I* but it might help Iran with non-Iranian Muslims and it's quite likely to get Iranians closer to the government. The US would look bad too if it let Israeli planes get through Iraq.

Note that I'm not saying it's an unambiguously smart thing, just that it's not an unambiguously dumb thing.

*Because of what that statesman said and because Iran owning nukes is a Bad Thing.

Yes, I agree that a strike on Iran from Israel could result in that. At least one Iranian student I've talked to mentioned the exact same scenario and concern. However, I've already conceded that such plotting can score political points. Such leaders may not care about the consequences if all they're concerned with is making a theocracy with them at the top. While that thinking may make them shrewd conspirators in that respect (and so maybe not dumb), it still makes them dumbasses.