Blogger Philip Weiss captured video of Sheldon Adelson’s call this week for the United States to detonate a nuclear bomb as a warning to Iran. The comment, made in a panel discussion at Yeshiva University, has been widely criticized. But a spokesperson for Adelson, a multibillionaire gaming magnate and major supporter of Republican causes, said his boss was just being hyperbolic.

“Mr. Adelson was using hyperbole to make a point that … actions speak louder than words,” said Ron Reese, according to a report in the Forward.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, who moderated the panel, also defended Adelson, and called the comment “innocuous.”

“Those who seem alarmed by Sheldon’s overstatement on the extent to which the United States should go to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon will at least protest that much more loudly against its actual development,” Boteach said in a news release.

Ben Harris is JTA’s news editor. In his seven years with JTA, he has reported from more than 15 countries. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, New York magazine, among other publications.