Satire in the Holy Wonderland: The Comic Framing of Arab Leaders in Israel

This article traces the depiction of Arab leaders in televised Israeli satire during the last two decades. First, I discuss the construction of Yasser Arafat's image in the popular show Hartzufim (1996-2000), claiming that his polysemic framing as an Arab-Jew served both the emotional needs of Jewish-Israelis in a bewildering era of transformations and the commercial interests of the show's producers. I then examine the depiction of other Arab leaders in Eretz Nehederet (2003-present), highlighting the continuous dominance of the "Israelification" framing strategy as a mode of hegemonic cooptation. Yet, in contemporary entertainment-driven media environment, this framing of Arab leaders tends to be de-politicized and fantasy-anchored, rather than news-anchored.