Netanyahu compares battle between Iran and IS to ‘Game of Thrones’
During his controversial speech to Congress on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made several unexpected references, including an apparent name-check of HBO’s “Game of Thrones.”
“In this deadly ‘Game of Thrones,’ there’s no place for America or for Israel, no peace for Christians, Jews or Muslims who don’t share the Islamist medieval creed, no rights for women, no freedom for anyone,” Netanyahu said while comparing Iran to the Islamic State militant group. “So when it comes to Iran and ISIS, the enemy of your enemy is your enemy.”
The prime minister’s pop culture nod did not go unnoticed.
— darth™ (@darth) March 3, 2015
.@Netanyahu drops Game of Thrones in Congress speech on Iran http://t.co/rWLNjUxfoN #BibiSpeech pic.twitter.com/fatGyhq3vK
— Brian Ries (@moneyries) March 3, 2015
Bibi mentioned Game of Thrones in his speech, so we had to: #NetanyahuSpeech in #GoT gifs!: http://t.co/ioJx0DMy5i http://t.co/CybeiKlWRh
— Jewish Daily Forward (@jdforward) March 3, 2015
I'm sorry, did Netanyahu just name-check Game of Thrones?
— Joanna Weiss (@JoannaWeiss) March 3, 2015
No embedded imperialist politics involved in comparing the Middle East to “Game of Thrones.” Nope. No sir-ee. Nah.
— Elias Isquith (@eliasisquith) March 3, 2015
Wasn't expecting the Game of Thrones reference... WATCH LIVE: Netanyahu delivers address to Congress - Jerusalem Post http://t.co/Q77pj4qhnW
— colleen debaise (@colleendebaise) March 3, 2015
No standing applause for Game of Thrones? #joffrey
— Sam Stein (@samsteinhp) March 3, 2015
If you had "Game of Thrones" on your Bibi speech drinking game card, kudos to you.
— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) March 3, 2015
I have never seen Game of Thrones so now I’m completely lost.
— Philip Bump (@pbump) March 3, 2015
Netanyahu just made a Game of Thrones ref in a foreign policy speech before Congress. See Dad it's not just a "dumb dragon porno" it's real
— Adam Conover (@adamconover) March 3, 2015
Bibi speech had more references than a Drake song: Game of Thrones, Google, tweets, Farewell to Arms, Robert Frost, Moses #NetanyahuSpeech
— Kia Makarechi (@Kia_Mak) March 3, 2015
Game of Thrones. Tweeting. Googling. This dude is hip. #NetanyahuSpeech
— Jacob Soboroff (@jacobsoboroff) March 3, 2015
ABC News’ Alexander Mallin went as far as to label Netanyahu a “secret millennial.”
The prime minister wasn’t the only person to invoke a Hollywood fantasy Tuesday.
CNN’s Christiane Amanpour called Netanyahu’s address “a very dark, Strangelovian speech,” a reference to Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 Cold War-era comedy “Dr. Strangelove.”
“It was a very dark, Strangelovian speech, painting the picture of a dystopian world, raising the specter of a genocidal nation, a genocidal regime spraying nuclear weapons to annihilate the whole world and the whole region,” Amanpour told Wolf Blitzer. “Now, obviously many people are very concerned about Iran, and there is a deep lack of trust, but surely the same was said of the Soviet Union all those years ago.”