Did Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu know that when he pulled out a cartoon image of a bomb and drew a red line across a line delineating 90 percent enriched uranium — at his United Nations General Assembly speech — that just minutes later parodies of the image would be created and shared across the Internet?
Netanyahu may be criticized by some for reducing the grave issue of an Iranian nuclear bomb into a cartoon, but others point to the effectiveness of the image, in its simplicity, and the very fact that it has 'gone viral' and that the Israeli prime minister's message has been sent around the world with unprecedented speed and penetration.
A parade of parodies, called "memes," have already sprung from the still image, depicting Netanyahu gesturing to the now famous cartoon bomb. Presented above are just some of the interpretations to this particular slice of history.
Netanyahu is known not to take offense at these kinds of parodies, on the contrary, he sometimes joins in the fun. After the release of captive soldier Gilad Schalit from Hamas in a prisoner exchange deal, Netanyahu was photographed alongside Gilad's father Noam embracing his son. That photo, and the meme parodies that followed, nicknamed "Bibi bombs", placed Netanyahu in many famous historical settings. Netanyahu, himself, is said to have thought of a few.