This is probably my favorite line in all of Tom Lehrer's work. It's so sharp, the rhyme is surprising but phonetically perfect. And it's delivered right at the most musically interesting part of the song. I probably laughed for minutes the first several times I heard the song.
Speaking of rhyme, I mutilated it, didn’t I? It should be «So Israel’s getting tense, wants one for self defense...»
I haven’t listened to that song in months; think I’ll put it on now. (My absolute Lehrer favourite, together with Wernher von Braun, National Brotherhood Week and New Math)
So Israel’s getting one for self defense - «The Lord’s our shepherd, says the psalm - but just in case - we’d better get a bomb!»
Tom Lehrer still makes me laugh until I cry after more than twenty years of exposure.