Recently Chinese and Pakistani accounts spread the false claim across X that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu had been killed in an Iranian air strike. Some of these claims were packaged with a fake AI video. The claims soon spread to the griftersphere including Candance Owens who suggested that she still believes the Israeli prime minister is gone.

Netanyahu spoofed the fake news with a short clip of him hearing about it while buying coffee “I’m dead? I’m dying for coffee” and demonstrating that, unlike the AI video, he doesn’t have six fingers.

But why even bother? Some of these answers may be revealing.