Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy has reached the highest level of Israeli cool – he has been impersonated on an episode of Eretz Nehederet (Wonderful Country), which aired Tuesday night. Eretz Nehederet is the blue-and-white version of Saturday Night Live, a weekly show on Keshet's Channel 12 that lampoons the week’s news events, even in the toughest of times.
One thing Eretz Nehederet and Levy already had in common even before Tuesday’s broadcast is that they have both given the war-torn, grief-stricken nation a few moments of laughter following the Hamas massacre on October 7 that led to the outbreak of the current war.
Levy, a British-born graduate of both Cambridge and Oxford who moved to Israel about 10 years ago, has impressed audiences around the world with his ability to keep his cool as he sparred with hostile and ignorant international interviewers. His epic eyebrow raise as he struggled to understand whether Sky News presenter Kay Burley was antagonistic or just very stupid as she accused Israel of valuing Palestinian lives less than Israeli ones because in the first round of hostage deals, Israel traded three Palestinian prisoners for each Israeli hostage released, went viral, inspiring dozens of memes and even emojis.
At Christmas, he released a video spoofing the iconic scene in Love Actually where Andrew Lincoln declares his love to Keira Knightley silently, by raising signs as he plays the music of carol singers, which Levy used to declare Israel’s intention to keep fighting until Hamas is vanquished and the hostages are released. After years of somber and often ineffective Israeli government spokespeople, Israel has finally found a representative who is as savvy, articulate, and playful as the citizens of Startup Nation, fully fluent in the international language of social media.
Levy is currently closing in on 200k followers on Instagram -- has there ever been a government spokesperson who even had an Instagram account before?
Eretz Nehederet satirizes Levy
The Eretz Nehederet sketch poked fun at another way that Levy has joined the cool kids -- by raising the ire of Israel’s first lady, Sara Netanyahu, known for her temper, her petulance, and her jealousy of anyone other than herself or her husband getting positive press. Reports surfaced earlier this month that she was angered by Levy’s prominence, because before taking on his spokesperson role following October 7, he had participated in the protests against the judicial reforms backed by the prime minister’s ruling coalition, and had criticized the reforms on social media.
Levy’s huge social-media following quivered with suspense as rumors circulated that he would soon be dismissed and replaced with the traditional tone-deaf Israeli public rep who spends more time saying, “Ehhhhh,” than uttering intelligible words in English.
In Tuesday night's skit, Levy (portrayed by Roy Bar-Natan, who often plays Yair Netanyahu) is interviewed by an anti-Israel BBC anchor (Liat Harlev), who has appeared on the show several times. As she asks Levy about accusations of genocide, Sara (Alma Zack) shows up, interrupting Levy in an angry tirade, prompting the anchor to say, "It seems we're facing another Israeli invasion."
Sara produces a photo of Levy at an anti-government demonstration before the war and Levy replies that he has put his personal opinions aside to defend Israel during the war. "Your war has just started," Sara snaps, asking him how to explain how he gets so many likes on his social media. "Israel is at war, who's going to defend the prime minister?" she asks, prompting Levy to say, "Excuse me?" with his trademark simmering outrage.
Levy explains to the BBC anchor that Sara was just expressing her outrage at the situation of the hostages, to which Sara responds, in Hebrew, that that wasn't what she said at all. She informs him that he has been fired, demanding his press card and finally -- his eyebrows, which he removes for her.
Whether this skit leads to Levy losing his current job, he can be confident that he and his eyebrows are likely to be recurring characters on the comedy show, which has been featuring more English sketches since the war began.