Mike drop

Penes, Pense, Spence: MKs get their Pence in a twist

Lawmakers mangle vice president’s name as they tweet welcomes and warnings at him

By Sue Surkes 22 January 2018, 2:55 pm Edit

Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter

US Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen arrive at Ben Gurion International Airport on January 21, 2018. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
US Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen arrive at Ben Gurion International Airport on January 21, 2018. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Pence. P-E-N-C-E. Those five simple letters have managed to tangle up more than one Knesset member in the past day, as they’ve run to welcome or warn the US vice president, who is making his first visit to Israel since taking national office.

Likud troublemaker Oren Hazan was among the first to wish the vice president well upon landing in Israel Sunday night, welcoming “Mike Penes” to Israel.

“I hope nobody will disturb us with our selfie,” the Likud lawmaker tweeted, alluding to the notorious picture he took with US President Donald Trump on the Ben-Gurion tarmac last year.

On that occasion, Hazan pushed himself into the official Israeli welcome lineup and kept Trump waiting while he fiddled with his cellphone.

Likud member Anat Berko welcomed the vice president and his wife as “true friends of Israel,” but managed to mistake Pence with parody account Michael Pense.

Yousef Jabareen, of the Joint (Arab) List, who plans to boycott the speech with the rest of his faction because of US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, tweeted that the speech to be delivered by Mike “Spence” would be “another nail in the coffin of peace.”

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