Bibi’s 5,000 Indonesian Facebook Fans
Image by Getty Images
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.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
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.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Dive In
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion My Jewish moms group ousted me because I work for J Street. Is this what communal life has come to?
- 2
Opinion I co-wrote Biden’s antisemitism strategy. Trump is making the threat worse
- 3
Opinion Stephen Miller’s cavalier cruelty misses the whole point of Passover
- 4
Film & TV How Marlene Dietrich saved me — or maybe my twin sister — and helped inspire me to become a lifelong activist
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture Jews thought Trump wanted to fight antisemitism. Why did he cut all of their grants?
-
Opinion Trump’s followers see a savior, but Jewish historians know a false messiah when they see one
-
Fast Forward Trump administration can deport Mahmoud Khalil for undermining U.S. foreign policy on antisemitism, judge rules
-
Opinion This Passover, let’s retire the word ‘Zionist’ once and for all
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
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 comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag 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.