The Israeli government has “liberated” the Twitter account “@Israel” from the clutches of a Spanish porn entrepreneur, who found he couldn’t make any money off it due to the onslaught of anti-Israel attacks that greeted his every erotic tweet:
Israel has acquired the user name @israel on Twitter, the microblogging Internet service, from the Spanish owner of a pornographic Web site, in an unusual transaction intended to help Israel exercise more influence over its image.
The owner of the user name, Israel Meléndez, got it in 2007, when Twitter was in its infancy. He struggled to use his account, however, because every posting prompted a flood of anti-Semitic or anti-Israel comments from Twitter users, in a case of mistaken identity.
“My account was basically unused because I was getting dozens of replies every day from people who thought the account belonged to the state of Israel,” Mr. Meléndez said.
Now, Israel can tweet like mad to the world exploiting the wonder of social networking to disseminate hasbara world-wide. For example, the current tweet trumpets a Gaza attack on the IDF using RPGs. You won’t see any tweets about yesterday’s massacre of a 91 year old shepherd and two young boys who were grazing sheep near the border fence. I guess the government of Israel’s tweets only chirp about the “good news” and leave out the bad.
Apparently, Israel’s name didn’t come cheaply. The government paid our pornographer quite handsomely to regain use of its proper name. All for the greater good of Israel. Its spokesperson had this to say about its former owner and the use to which it will now be put:
Yigal Palmor, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, confirmed the purchase. He declined to say how much Israel paid, but he said that “it was not pro bono.”
“We thought we could put it to better use than he did…
You know, there are those who might disagree and even say that Israel’s current use is pornography of a different sort. Not that I’m among them, you understand. Every country needs its hasbara–and Israel more than most.
Not to be outdone, some mischievous fellow has followed up on Israel’s coup by creating an ‘evil twin’ Twitter account @fake_israel. Idleness is the devil’s playground, so they say.
wont see any tweets on the incident above, because the idf reported it themselves
i would also like to note that you left out the report that one of the men was reportedly holding an rpg and pointing it at the idf soldiers
they did tweet about the phosphorous mortar attack that emanated from gaza this morning
not sure why it matters who held the twitter account before they purchased it…i am sure your hosting company stays in biz by leasing out to porn providers
Now, wait. The IDF reported that it’d killed a 91 yr old shepherd & his grandson? Can you show us the IDF press release? Actually, it was first reported here by Mary, who knows the family. A day later it was reported by Haaretz, which quoted a lame-assed statement by the IDF absolving itself of any responsibiity. Is that what you meant by “reporting it themselves???”
Actually, the IDF reported one of them had picked up a rocket launcher in a totally self-serving claim. And frankly I don’t trust anything the IDF says esp. in embarrassing incidents like this one. These guys carry video & cameras I’m sure for surveillance purposes. Let them release documentary evidence of the person carrying a rocket launcher then I might feel differently.
You are a humorless type, aren’t you. Don’t see any humor in Israel paying six-figures to a Spanish porn king for the right’s to their own name which they weren’t smart enough to pick up for free when Twitter began? I think it’s funny.
I think it’s hilarious!! I mean, any state buying anything from a porn entrepreneur for its media and communication work would be funny.
They claim to have paid $3,000. He claims to have received a “five figure sum”. A career change, from pornographer to estate agent, is clearly imminent.