PM still most popular Israeli politician on Facebook

Netanyahu has over 300,000 "likes;" with Liberman in second place on the social network.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Netanyahu Facebook page 370 (photo credit: Facebook)
Netanyahu Facebook page 370
(photo credit: Facebook)
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu maintained his title as the most popular Israeli politician on Facebook, garnering over 300,000 “likes” on the social networking site.
In addition, over 1.8 million people viewed the prime minister’s Facebook timeline in the last month, 1.5 million of whom are Israelis.
“Netanyahu believes in an unmediated connection with the citizens of Israel, and continues to invite everyone to join, to influence and inspire public discourse on social media,” Likud spokeswoman Noga Katz said.
Netanyahu is still far ahead of the political competition on the social networking site, where Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman is in second place for the most fans with 75,401 likes – a sharp increase since April, when he had 12,682. Yesh Atid founder Yair Lapid is in third place with 62,009, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon (Yisrael Beytenu) has 38,313 and Labor leader Shelly Yechimovich has 29,861. Meretz MK Nitzan Horowitz has 21,601 while Kadima leader Shaul Mofaz has 4,708.
Earlier this year, when Netanyahu reached 200,000 likes, Yechimovich slammed Netanyahu for inflating his numbers and pointed out that most of his fans are from abroad.
This time, Katz preempted the possible attacks by highlighting the number of Israeli fans various politicians have. Like in April, less than half – 144,000 – of Netanyahu’s fans are Israeli.
His other likes come from the US (104,067), Indonesia (6,353), Canada (2,683), Mexico, Colombia, the UK, France, Brazil, Tunisia and Germany.
The vast majority of other politicians’ fans are from Israel.
Yechimovich has 26,860 Israeli likes and Lapid has 55,380, according to the Likud. A Yisrael Beytenu spokesman said that 75 percent of the foreign minister’s fans are Israeli.
Yisrael Beytenu is the most popular political party on Facebook, with a total of 16,131 likes on its five official pages in Hebrew, English, Russian, Arabic and French.
Likud has 15,367 fans, Meretz has 11,137, Labor has 3,814 and Kadima has 7,521.
“We know that Israelis require a high level of accountability, engagement and transparency from their politicians and political parties,” Yisrael Beytenu deputy director of communications Ashley Perry said.
“Yisrael Beytenu is working hard to make sure we meet all of these requirements, especially with our online presence.
Our successes in this area clearly demonstrate that our policies are striking a chord with the Israeli public, and we will continue to inform and make our case while continuing to serve the people of Israel.”