An Israeli posing as former Prime Minister Ehud Barak posted a recording of a phone call on his Facebook page in which he played a practical joke on the journalist Amnon Abramovich. In the Aug. 10 post, the impersonator, Yossi Vider, promised Abramovich a scoop in the form of a statement that Barak planned to run for Labor Party leader. In the process, Vider drew the veteran commentator into a conversation about the need to end Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s grip on power. Abramovich, who claims that he knew the conversation was a practical joke, played along with Vider. Right-wing activists seized the opportunity to charge that Abramovich has revealed his true colors — a non-objective journalist with a clear agenda of bringing down the prime minister.

This response was not unexpected, of course, but that of Netanyahu was even more dumbfounding. The prime minister shared the clip on his Facebook page, which has about 2 million followers and is considered the most important and most influential Facebook page in Israel. His sharing the recording unleashed a wave of mudslinging and curses against Abramovich on the social networks. He has been labeled a radical left winger, a self-hating troublemaking Jew and a traitor.

This was not the first time that Abramovich, one of the most high-level and experienced television commentators in Israel, has been subjected to incitement and hatred. Three years ago, during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, Channel 2 broadcast from a special studio opposite Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv. A group of right-wing activists gathered near Abramovich’s studio to boo and shout insults at him, including calling him a “traitor.”

Abramovich is an Israeli war hero, who, during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, was severely burned on several parts of his body. He received a Citation medal. These “minor details” do not move his detractors. Someone is inciting the public against him. Abramovich is not, however, alone.