Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Bibi’s 5,000 Indonesian Facebook Fans

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is no different from the rest of us when it comes to trying to boost our online presence and optimize our social networking reach. You may have heard about his recent efforts to get more people to “like” his official Facebook page, some or which got him into a little trouble.

Well, now he’s boasting about the number of “friends” he has (200,000 at last count). The only problem is that — at least in this case — the numbers kind of lie.

Labor leader Shelly Yachimovich’s team was quick to point out that just a bit of analysis of Bibi’s stats reveals that only 17% of the people who “like” him are Israelis. Fifty-two percent are from the United States (not surprising given the prime minister’s reception in Congress last fall and strong support for him among American conservatives), and astonishingly, a full 3% (5,000 individuals) are from Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world. Those 5,000 Indonesians account for more than all of Bibi’s friends in the U.K., Canada, France and Mexico combined. Fascinating, given that Israel does not even have diplomatic relations with Indonesia.

Dimi Reider noted in a post on this in 972 Magazine that “even if none of the ‘likes’ on his [Netanyahu’s] page have been purchased, as activists were quick to suggest, the financial investment in the page is a considerable one.”

Yachimovich’s staff was quick to point out that, although their boss only has 20,400 Facebook friends, 90% of them are Israeli.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.