Is Ivgeni Zarubinski an Israeli Foreign Ministry official who posted about activating explosive pagers in Ireland following Israel's 3-0 soccer loss to Ireland in late September 2026? No, that's not true: Zarubinski, a comedian, satirist, and social media personality, has no affiliation with the ministry. There is also no evidence that any Israeli official suggested an attack on Ireland after the UEFA Nations League match.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) by the @RabbiJeffx account on X on Sept. 28, 2026. It read:
An Israeli Foreign Ministry official just openly called for a terror attack on Ireland.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @RabbiJeffx on X.)
The original post (archived here) by Zarubinski appeared on the יבגני זרובינסקי (@ivgiz) account on X on Sept. 27, 2026. Translated from Hebrew, it read:
Come on, it's time to activate the pagers we scattered in Ireland.
The pager reference is satirical, alluding to the September 2024 coordinated attacks in Lebanon and Syria, when thousands of pagers and other communication devices used by Hezbollah members exploded, killing more than three dozen people and injuring thousands more. The victims included civilians, children, and medical workers.
Hezbollah blamed Israel for the attacks, which Israel initially did not publicly acknowledge. In November 2024, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged that he had approved the pager operation (archived here), and his spokesperson confirmed that Israel was responsible.
Ahead of the Sept. 27, 2026 match with Israel, the Republic of Ireland team (archived here) refused to shake hands with the Israelis and wore black armbands in protest of Israel's actions in Gaza.
Zarubinski's X profile (archived here) likely caused the social media confusion over whether he was an Israeli official or not. It read:
Head of the HKN Division, Israeli Office of Digital Defense.
Strategic Communications, Memes & Regional Confusion
The Israeli government does not have an Office of Digital Defense; it's a fictional entity created by Zarubinski. Also, HKN stands for Haifa and Krayot News, which is a popular local social media page and satirical news feed run by Zarubinski. His HKN Instagram profile, HKN החדשות חי (archived here), translated from Hebrew (archived here), read:
News at eye level • "The best reporting page in Israel" (Israel Hayom, 2026) • News updates and badass satire 🇮🇱 Haifa and the Krayot 👈 @hkn.haifa 📩 Contact us at @👇
The account clearly states its intent is "badass satire."
News searches
Lead Stories searched Google News (archived here) and Yahoo News (archived here) and found no matching reports from credible news outlets confirming the claim came from an Israeli official, using the search terms: "Zarubinski," "pagers," and "Ireland."
