WASHINGTON, DC – US President Barack Obama has praised ‘outstanding’ progress in Middle East peace talks after Israel said they would accept Palestine’s friend request on Facebook.
He spoke from the Oval Office after helping Benjamin Netanyahu set up an account and configured the appropriate privacy settings. The Israeli PM who said it was “high time Israel got on this Facebook thing and started working with Palestine on Farmville or something.”
The two leaders also played down suggestions of a US and Israel rift, with President Obama stressing the “unbreakable” bond between the two nations. “We’ve been friends with Israel for years” reminded Obama “Not only are we friends on LinkedIn, but we also follow each other on Twitter…and even way back when Friendster was hot.”
‘Follow us back’
Mr Netanyahu said he would take steps to solidify the peace process, including clicking “Accept Friend Request” link in the confirmation email and setting up an event to indicate when they would stop the blockade of the Gaza Strip.
Skeptics remain concerned the new Facebook status is merely a superficial act that will not translate to solid foundations for peace and would just result in Israel eventually blocking Palestine’s profile.
This is something Mr Netanyahu has dismissed, pointing to the higher than expected number of fans on the Israeli initiated “Let’s Put All That Bloodshed Behind Us” group as proof the peace would be lasting.
He did warn that the main threat facing Israel was the possibility of Iran looking them up on Facebook and barraging them with ‘super annoying’ pokes, although Tehran denies claims it is thinking about signing up to Facebook at all.
Iran maintains it would continue to refuse negotiation efforts until Israel and the US friend them on MySpace, a scenario understood to be ‘highly unlikely’ at this point in time or in future.
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