Israelis take the edge off with laughter

On the surface, Israel's controversial West Bank separation barrier - slicing through parts of the occupied West Bank - seems like no laughing matter.

It recently landed Israel in the International Court of Justice, and some Israelis fear a negative ruling could nudge their country toward pariah state status. But Israel's most popular television show, a spoof on newscasts called "Eretz Nehederet" (Wonderful Country) thought the government's approach of organizing protests outside The Hague courtroom to stress that Israelis are victims left much to be satirized.

Producers of the show, based partly on Saturday Night Live, decided to portray an upbeat Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon carrying flowers through the wards of a hospital following a terrorist attack. He offers round-trip tickets to patients for a "free vacation in Holland."

A young man in a cast tells him, "But I was injured in a traffic accident."

"It doesn't matter, you're coming with us to The Hague," roars the prime minister, launching into a song-and-dance number about how a public relations ploy is much better than "a thousand lawyers" at the sessions, which Israel boycotted. The skit was one of the show's more biting moments during a premiere season that has Israelis of all political stripes laughing. Despite its popularity - on average 10 percent of Israelis tuned in - critics say Eretz Nehederet's dovish writers favor slapstick and ratings over traditionally merciless Israeli satire and a tackling of the painful Palestinian issue.

The show's chief editor, Muly Segev, says its purpose is often just to entertain but that it also voices attitudes at loggerheads with Mr. Sharon's right-wing policies. "We know the situation is complex and that the Palestinians are not angels, but we think the responsibility to change the situation falls upon the Israelis because we are the stronger party," he says. "We believe that some elements of the establishment find the crisis atmosphere in which Israel lives to be convenient."

In one episode, Syrian President Assad calls Sharon's car phone and offers him a peace treaty. But Sharon, anxious to retain the occupied Golan Heights, says he can't speak anymore, feigning an accident.

The show's first few episodes introduced Luba, a parody of the ubiquitous Russian immigrant female supermarket cashiers in Israel. Credited with being the first major Russian immigrant character in Israeli pop culture, the feisty Luba spars with her customers in hilariously halting Hebrew, spending so much time arguing that she finishes only one customer a day.

"This is a show that you can relax with after a hard week," says Eran Rotsheker, a basketball coach in Jerusalem. "It's satire that is intended to make you laugh with your family on Friday night. They take real things and exaggerate them in a funny way."

Sharon was initially depicted almost entirely as a farcical figure, crushing people with his physical bulk and destroying everything around him. As the season wore on, a comically sinister side appeared, but he was mostly depicted as a slob. In one skit, police tempt him to talk about alleged corruption scandals by using a shawarma sandwich. As for Israel's macho defense minister, Shaul Mofaz, he invariably responds to questions about Israel's hawkish policies by saying in a hushed voice: "Be a real man's man."

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