‘Push the Bibi’ game mocks Paris jostle
Online game satirizes incident in which PM reportedly ‘elbowed his way to the front row’ at France rally

Think you’ve got what it takes to maneuver yourself into the front row of world leaders marching against terror in Paris, just as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu managed Sunday?
A new tongue-in-cheek video game released Tuesday aims to give you a chance, while pushing an anti-Netanyahu election campaign as well.
Entitled “Push the Bibi,” Netanyahu’s widely used nickname, the game, apparently a Labor Party campaign gag, shows the prime minister adorned with a crown and surrounded by fluttering Israeli and European Union flags.
Players have to “help Bibi push his way through the crowd of world leaders at the Paris rally” so that he can make it to the front row, beside French President François Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
If the user is successful, a Labor party election advertisement appears, along with the slogan: “When Bibi wins, everyone loses.”
The game was posted on the website of Israeli digital firm Hooligans.
Video showing Netanyahu making his way to the head of the crowd so that he could feature prominently beside other world leaders at the gathering featured prominently in Israeli media, drawing the derision of pundits and politicians alike.
עכשיו גם שני מיליון ערבים יודעים שאסור להתעסק עם ביבי
Posted by Noy Alooshe on Sunday, January 11, 2015
Political figures admonished the prime minister for the alleged hustle, including former finance minister Yair Lapid, who branded the prime minister “uncouth.”
However, a piece in French weekly Paris Match verified that the order of the places in the front row were in fact decided in advance, with Netanyahu meant to be in the front row.
The accounts were apparently based on a mixture of misunderstanding video clips from the rally and some Israeli pundits’ deep-seated political animosity to the Likud leader.
Israelis are slated to head to the polls on March 17.