Professional Zionist opinion-formers can be subtle when they try.

But like the rest of us, they get antsy if they think their audience isn’t paying attention. Sometimes they spell out their message in language so blunt it can’t be misinterpreted.

David S Broder: "All you need is War!"

David S. Broder is an 81 year-old Jewish Zionist who has written for the Washington Post since the 1960s. His column is syndicated to hundreds of other newspapers around the USA.

Last weekend, he gave President Obama clear and unambiguous advice from the lofty heights of the Washington Post editorial pages: The war recovery?

Broder sees prospects for Obama to win again in 2012. Mid-term setbacks notwithstanding, he thinks Obama can still come out trumps. The President just needs to get two things right: the business cycle and war.

Mr Broder has little to say about the business cycle. “The market will go where it is going to go” seems to be the distillation of his lifetime’s experience. Not much for a President to do about the economy, it seems – just hope for the best.

On war, Broder does have a specific remedy. Obama needs to start another one. The great thing is, according to Broder, that will fix the economy too!

With strong Republican support in Congress for challenging Iran’s ambition to become a nuclear power, (Obama) can spend much of 2011 and 2012 orchestrating a showdown with the mullahs. This will help him politically because the opposition party will be urging him on. And as tensions rise and we accelerate preparations for war, the economy will improve.

So there’s Uncle David’s hint. It could have been said in a sentence, really (with explanatory notes in brackets – redacted for public consumption):

Start a(nother) war (in Israel’s interest) – enjoy the (next phase in debt-fuelled) boom – and become a great and popular President! (time it right and it’s worth the next Presidential election!!!)

As Mr Broder points out, anti-war Republicans in Congresss aren’t a problem these days (unlike those pesky America-firsters back in 1940). The Lobby has fixed that up. Broder might have added that the corporate media would back Obama all the way if he bombs another populous ancient culture to ruination (but some things are still better left unsaid).

Broder hastily adds he’s not really proposing Obama starts a war just for crude political advantage. Perish the thought! This is epic stuff and the safety of the entire planet is at stake:

I am not suggesting, of course, that the president incite a war to get reelected. But the nation will rally around Obama because Iran is the greatest threat to the world in the young century. If he can confront this threat and contain Iran’s nuclear ambitions, he will have made the world safer and may be regarded as one of the most successful presidents in history.

In Broderland, war makes the world safe and the economy boom. And it’s great for winning elections.

It must a parallel universe. Thank God the rest of us don’t have to live there.