Opposition head and Zionist Union chairperson MK Yitzhak Herzog on Thursday sought to deal with his criminal corruption investigation with a humorous Facebook post - but he soon found himself the butt of the joke.
"I've been going through some difficult days. Both of us have. We'll get through this," he wrote, in a post humorously accompanied by a picture of soccer star Lionel Messi scowling.
Messi's pained expression in the picture was due to the fact that on Thursday his team Barcelona got knocked out of the European Champions League. A poor showing by the Argentinian star who hasn't scored a goal in a month led some to question whether he should quit the Spanish team.
But the Labor faction head's attempt at internet humor quickly spiraled out of control, as users quickly parodied his post and mocked his attempt to gain sympathy.
One user swapped the picture of Messi out for a picture of Inbal Or, a real estate magnate who is currently on trial for a massive fraud scam in which she is accused of having fleeced numerous clients of huge sums of money.
Inbal Or on hard times as well Screenshot/Facebook
The horror of life without Land Rovers Screenshot/Facebook
Other users chose to go with the classics, with one swapping the Messi picture with one of Simba mourning his dead father in the Disney movie The Lion King.
Commiserating with Simba Screenshot/Facebook
Another tactic used by one creative user was to draw up a table comparing Herzog and Messi, finding humorous affinities between the two.
The user noted that Herzog "opposes the occupation," while Messi "does defense." Both of them "play in the middle (i.e. political center - ed.)," and while Messi is "the all-time king of cooking in the Spanish League," Herzog "makes a mean borscht."
The soccer star "doesn't talk a lot," and Herzog "is silent in investigations," in a stab at his previous refusals to speak in corruption investigations. And finally, while Messi is "a global ambassador of the Gillette company," baby-faced Herzog "still doesn't shave."
