Facebooking with Bibi Netanyahu
There’s an old saying: He who social networks well shall be victorious in the quest to lead the Promised Land on Feb. 10, 2009.
Or something like that. Several weeks ago, I was Facebooking as usual — the best way to stay in touch with old friends, new acquaintances, fellow journalists, and high school classmates without getting spammed — when Benjamin Netanyahu asked to be my Facebook friend. This wasn’t just his page or fan site, which also exist on Facebook, but a profile like that of any other user.
Around the same time, Knesset member Michael Eitan, also of the Likud Party, asked to be my Facebook friend. Then a prominent Israeli political strategist and convert from Kadima to Likud added me. Recently I added Likud MKs Gideon Sa’ar (deputy speaker of the Knesset) and Gilad Erdan.
Granted, utilizing the popularity and reach of social networking sites is as obligatory for politicians these days as it is for journalists. But most politicos set up their Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and Flickr links on their home pages, have a staffer post updates, and then have a staffer approve friend requests as the fans come to them. Never have I seen such proactive social networking like what’s come out of Likud staffers this campaign season. It’s the 2.0 version of precinct walking. Do you just set up the booth on the corner and wait for voters to come to you, or do you knock on doors and introduce yourself and your platform?
Especially considering Netanyahu and Eitan were sending friend requests to a non-Israeli. But again, that’s a wise move. Do I have a history of supporting Netanyahu and Likud? Yep, like lauding Netanyahu’s foresight on the Gaza withdrawal in a reflective 2006 column. Does Israel’s future depend solely on the support of Israelis? Of course not. So identifying global supporters and keeping them up to speed on the campaign is also wise.
Now if Bibi could just stop telling us how centrist he is Likud might actually get the number of seats it deserves!
If Bibi needs help with security,
I have just the girl for him.
DoubleTapper
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I wish Mr. Netanyahu well in the election but I am not holding my breath that Iraeli voters will exhibit any more intelligence in selecting a leader than the American public.
Both groups are severely afflicted with the disease of extreme secularism. To most people the general election is a popularity contest.
wr jones: i, too, am hoping netanyahu carries the day. israel has the same weird leftists, with strange ideas about being ‘peaceful” even while they are so hated, just as we are, and in imminent danger. israeli society is diverse as well, and israeli arabs have the vote also. i pray that even with all this being the case, israelis turn out in droves and vote in bibi.
i think he is the only really strong leader who can be effective, and he is a wonderful communicator. if he is a centrist, their society is very much like ours, and that’s we wanted too. of course, we still don’t know if that’s what we have. in bibi’s case, being a centrist will not prevent him from the best defense of israel, whether or not that means being pro-active. that’s why he is a good choice.
To Judy NYC. With respect may I respond to your post.
The future is not known to us so we agonize.I noticed that you used the words hope and pray in your first paragraph. I only need to look at last November to honestly say ,I don’t believe God is involved in the outcome of elections. They are the work of men and obviously far from Gods perfection.
That said, the welfare and fate of Israel rests with God and it would be difficult to see how God would ignore her plight.
That this story from Bridget Johnson did not generate more thought and comment is a mystery to me.
May God Bless the Likud Party and Mr. Netanyahu and the State of Israel
Sorry, but No General Election, No Bibi Natanyahu, not even the best brains in the Country will succeed in effacing the futility of a permanent peace between Israel and the Palestinians as things stand today. The Jewish State would have to accede to the demands called for by the Hamas Charter, that of being totally destroyed… and no-one with any stretch of imagination believes that the Jewish State with its almost 4000 year-old biblical history would accept ‘committing suicide’ just so that an Islamic State would be created in its place. It is a bleak prospect we see before us today when notwithstanding Gaza being reduced to rubble by Israeli forces, those Arabs still have the grit to fire rockets into Israeli towns. They are as determined to destroy Israel as Israelis are of surviving. Who is going to be Winner of it all? the Saudis of course for not relenting and helping to bring Peace into the Region by building another ‘Dubai’ for their ‘Palestinian’ Brethren as they built one for themselves. Only then will peace reign in the Middle East and the Saudis know it and by the same token enjoy witnessing Israel being punished in this way. Arabs………..
Damn. I don’t have ANY genocidal maniac Facebook friends yet! How do I get Bibi to send me an invitation? I’d love to have him IM me his thoughts on how he plans to use the Palestinians as a political prop to maintain the artificial ethnic integrity of a “Jewish” Israel — a physical and social impossibility in the absence of a permanent existential threat. Would he merely continue to confine them inside the world’s largest open-air prisons, turning their water and power on and off, burning their fields and demolishing their homes as needed to ensure that no stable economic or political order takes root? Or would he try to broaden his base by creating a “Hunt the Palestinians” Web site that enables non-Israelis to remotely order airstrikes on Gaza or interactively “drive” a drone Caterpillar bulldozer through a residential neighborhood?
Seriously, Bibi has always been an inventive, enterprising murderer. If he can find a way to let regular folks “own a piece of the Nekba,” Facebook would be the ideal place to promote it.
Go Bibi!