Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Bibi, Shalit and the ‘Forrest Gump’ Effect

Some tech-savvy Israelis thought that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was hogging the spotlight yesterday as the nation celebrated the return of Gilad Shalit after five years and four months in Hamas captivity.

So, they started a creative Facebook meme to express their frustration with Bibi’s perceived need to be in so many photos of the soldier’s homecoming. Facebook users, calling Bibi the Forrest Gump of Gilad Shalit Day, began Photoshopping his face (taken from the now iconic picture of Shalit’s first embrace with his father) into images of historic events he has absolutely nothing to do with.

There he suddenly was next to basketball legend Tal Brody as the Israeli national team won the 1977 European Cup. How could we forget that he was with the late Yitzhak Rabin and King Hussein as they brokered the peace treaty between Israel and Jordan? And what? — You don’t remember that he was there with the other soldiers glancing up in reverence at the Kotel during the Six Day War, or on stage with Rabin and the singer Miri Alon singing “The Peace Song” just moments before Rabin’s assassination?

Other posters focused on the fact that Netanyahu seemed to be intruding on what should have been a private family moment. Some inserted him looking on as parents embraced their children in scenes from famous family-themed films, such as the Israeli “Abba Ganuv.” The irony is not lost on viewers as they see Bibi ostensibly stealing the show from the father (the title of the film literally means “stolen father.”)

By this morning, there were yet more examples circulating, including one that has quickly garnered hundreds of “likes” and “shares.” It is the image of Shalit hugging his father, Noam, but with the younger Shalit’s and Bibi’s heads transposed. So now, Bibi is hugging Noam Shalit and Gilad Shalit is looking on at the reunion. The caption reads, “Gilad Shalit, what are you doing in this picture?!”

Israeli journalist Dimi Reider, who was the first to identify this phenomenon, wrote that his favorite — as of late yesterday — was an image of a skull and waving hand butting in on a chest x-ray (Shalit underwent x-rays as part of his initial physical examination upon being turned over the Israelis).

Inevitably, the meme has gone meta. This morning, someone posted a photo of actor Tom Hanks playing Forrest Gump. And who is that looking on from the corner of the shot? Why, it’s Bibi, of course.

Check out this BibiBomb blog for even more memes gone wild.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

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.