On Monday, Khamenei tweeted that "Our stance against Israel is the same stance we have always taken. #Israel is a malignant cancerous tumor in the West Asian region that has to be removed and eradicated: it is possible and it will happen." Twitter, for its part, didn't seem to find the threat of genocide to be violating its policy against threats or abuse.
But the Twitter account for the Israeli Embassy in DC opted for a gentler approach, tweeting a GIF on Monday from the film Mean Girls, where one character asks another "Why are you so obsessed with me?"
The cutting humor resonated around the Twittersphere.
If the Israeli-Iran war will be fought via Twitter likes, Jerusalem is the clear winner; the embassy's tweet had close to 18,000 likes by Tuesday compared to just under 4,000 for Khamenei.
In addition to the tweet itself, screenshots of the interaction between the two accounts also garnered thousands of likes. Yashar Ali, a writer for New York Magazine and The Huffington Post with more than 270,000 followers, tweeted a screenshot with just the word "OMG" - and received 10,000 likes.
A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said the tweet was a "nice idea," but wouldn't say if it represented a new tactic in digital diplomacy.
Jerusalem Post
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