Gov’t Just Going To Assume At This Point Any Praise For It Ironic

“Probability alone militates against interpreting such praise as anything but biting commentary.”

Jerusalem, December 20 – So unpopular has Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s administration grown that its public relations personnel on both party and Coalition levels no longer seek to amplify voices on social media proclaiming support for the administration’s policies or decisions, and will instead treat even such positive-sounding messages as sarcastic, a source within the Prime Minister’s Office disclosed Monday.

“It’s one thing to be criticized,” acknowledged the source, speaking on condition of anonymity. “That’s fine, and an integral part of democracy. But just in terms of committing a political faux pas, it would compound the criticism to be seen as accepting an ironic statement at face value. Given the consistent erosion of this government’s favorability among voters in the last several months, we can no longer assume the ingenuousness of the remarks; probability alone militates against interpreting such praise as anything but biting commentary.”

The source gave recent examples of users on social media with large followings. “Just this week one Twitter account praised us for our ‘creative methods in conducting law enforcement in the lawless Negev,’ a reference to our ‘outsourcing’ of regular police duties to Bedouin clans and criminal gangs in the South, essentially the State paying protection money to local mafia.”

Other cases include an Instagram post of the user offering to round up all her neighbors on behalf of the Ministry of Health for relocation to isolated facilities because some of them wear their masks improperly; a Facebook post expressing hope that the government maintains its bold leadership during the COVID pandemic and authorizes fifth and sixth immunization boosters already, despite a fourth under consideration only for the elderly or immunocompromised; kudos to the IDF prosecutor for opening a since-closed criminal investigation of the two Border Police personnel who shot a terrorist to death this past Saturday, lest security forces get the wrongheaded idea that they must prioritize anything over the life of an attempted murderer while the stabbing incident has yet to conclude; and gushing admiration in a series of TikTok videos for the Byzantine procedures necessary to open and operate a small business in Israel.

Pending legislation aims to censor misinformation and malicious content on social media, which Coalition lawmakers now declare they intend to apply to any discussion of public issues, politics, and other topics, lest such content be couched in terms that can be interpreted the wrong way, even if phrased as straight agreement with official decisions.

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