Today, the Intelsky Twitter account – primarily an aircraft tracker operating out of Lebanon – reported on the death of a Mossad commander: Asa Flots.
Iran’s Mehr News Agency got wind of the news and also published it.
Alas, the fallen commander was a silent but deadly assassin, because “Asa Flots” in Hebrew means “he farted.”
That’s right, they had been pranked.
Same energy.
Now unfortunately the Jerusalem Post – masquerading as an irreverent blog and not the serious news outlet it is supposed to be – beat me to this story, so many of the good punchlines have already been taken. But they did prove their worth by getting to the bottom of this:
The origin of the gassy claim may be from a tweet by Khaled Iskef, a reporter with the Lebanese, pro-Iranian Al-Mayadeen TV, which shared the claim that a Mossad commander had been killed, although he mentioned only the “Ilak Ron” name, without “Asa Flots.”
One Twitter user, GiliCharley, responded to Iskef’s tweet that “‘Ilak Ron’ was his operation name. His real name is Asa Flots.” The Abu Ali Express channel and other social media users theorized that the response may have been what IntelSky sourced for their tweet about “Mr. Fart.” The Jerusalem Post was unable to confirm if this was the case.
When another Twitter user congratulated GiliCharley for seemingly gaslighting IntelSky, GiliCharley responded “Gladly, but the real applause should go to our dear hero ‘Asaf Lotz’ (another pun on the “made a fart” joke) may he rest in peace.”
This has not been a good week for the Iranians and their allies when it comes to falling for pranks.
