Saad Hariri
Photo: AFP
Hariri slammed for tweet to IDF official
Former Lebanese PM's Twitter tête-à-tête with IDF Arabic spokesman enrages his online followers
Former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri's Twitter activity landed him in the eye of an online storm Thursday, as a brief exchange he shared with IDF Spokesman in Arabic Major Avichay Adraee had his followers up in arms.
Hariri is known as a prolific tweeter. On Thursday, his usual "good morning" tweet met a similar greeting by Adraee, who has been diligently increasing the IDF Arabic Spokesman's online activity in Arab social network sites.
Inappropriate tête-à-tête?
Adraee's Twitter account depicts him in his IDF uniform and features the Israeli flag – two facts that Hariri's followers were quick to notice – and disapprove of.
Hariri's page was soon filled with rebukes and the outrage eventually led to a formal apology by the former Lebanese PM: "When I answered today's good morning greetings, I answered one some of you say belongs to an Israeli (defense) official's Twitter account.
"If that's true I would like to clarify that I did not know it when I answered him, since I consider Israel to be an enemy state," he wrote.
Lebanese media affiliated with Hezbollah, like the Al-Akhbar newspaper and Al-Manar television, were quick to report the incident, dubbing it "Tweeting with the enemy," in an attempt to ram the Shiite group's political adversary.
A Facebook group affiliated with Syrian President Bashar Assad did the same.
Major Adraee posted the following response on his Twitter page: "(On) a media storm because of 'Good Morning' from the Lebanese figure: I respect his opinion and regret if he was offended, but I think that the role of networking is to open doors, not shut down."
The IDF Arabic Spokesman's Twitter page is moderately popular and has nearly 6,000 followers; over half of whom are from Egypt, followed by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
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