The Dark Humor of Wartime Israel

As one famed satirist said, Israelis have no patience for old stories about persecution.

By Joshua Hoffman, FUTURE OF JEWISH            31 January 2024

“Eretz Nehederet” (the Israeli version of Saturday Night Live) has taken aim at the BBC for its heavily biased coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.

Please be advised: This essay includes profanity.

A few days ago, a father sent a text message to his son, a famous Israeli comedian, asking how he is holding up.

His son wrote back, saying: “I’m okay, Dad, broken and worrying like everyone else. Your grandchildren are doing pretty well, making a lot of toast that I end up eating. Do you still have the old toaster? The one that presses on the toast?”

His father wrote him back, saying:

“My sweet Udi, I wanted to tell you that you shouldn’t worry too much. When I was six years old, the Sinai war broke out. When I was 17 years old, the Six-Day War broke out. When I was 23 years old, the Yom Kippur War broke out. And this is how it was until today, one war after another.”

“One thing I can assure you is that, between the wars and after them, there is always another part of life. Wartime, then quiet. In this dark time, it’s hard to remember that there’s always light at the end of every tunnel. Even as dark as it is right now.”

“Remember that what I’m saying, in a month or two months or two years from now, we will see the light, and it will heal us all and help us recover.”

The famous Israeli comedian replied: “Wow, you touched me, Dad. So you don’t have the toaster?”

Such is Israeli humor: cynical, condescending, forthright, and affectionate. It is a country, as famed Israeli satirist Ephraim Kishon put it, “sprawled on the shore of the Mediterranean in such a way that half an hour’s drive from any point in the country will take you either to the seashore or into captivity in the hands of the Arab Legion.”

The adage “comedy is tragedy plus time” is paramount in Israel, but Israeli humor is very different from traditional Jewish humor of the ghetto, or even American Jewish humor.

“Ghetto humor has to do with the Ukrainian or Polish police chief and how the Jew gets around him,” said Kishon. “It’s the self-defense mechanism of a persecuted minority, part of a fight for life and being. American Jewish humor is ‘Portnoy’s Complaint.’ Even on the Borscht Belt it has a self-conscious, ethnic, nervous quality that completely escapes native Israelis. They laugh at its vulgarity and sex, but they don’t understand the humor.”1

“You have to remember that a whole generation has grown up in Israel that doesn’t know what it means to be Jewish in that sense,” added Kishon. “It was easy in the ‘good old Hitler days.’ You could hardly forget it and survive. But Sabras (people born in Israel) are Israelis, not Jews. That’s their identity. Sabra humor seems an impertinent, goyish sort of humor to older Jews because Sabras have no patience with old stories about persecution.”

“Eretz Nehederet” — Hebrew for “Wonderful Country,” the Israeli version of Saturday Night Live — took a break following the terror attacks of October 7th, 2023. But when the crew returned some three weeks later, they did not hold back, taking aim at the BBC and United Nations, “woke” American universities, Hamas’ billionaire leaders in Qatar, and even Israeli soldiers.

Some sketches have gone viral overseas, including a clip where two pink- and blue-haired Columbia University students, one in a Palestinian scarf, tells the camera: “We are live on YouTube with Columbia Antisemity News, where everyone is welcome: LGBTQH.”

“What’s the H?” the other asks. “Hamas.” The two then sing the chant, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and one student asks the other: “Do you know why it’s true? Because it rhymes.”

The student then tears down posters of kidnapped Israeli children while the other appeals to the viewer: “I’m not antisemitic, I’m racist-fluid.”

In another viral sketch, a BBC anchor cheers on the Gazan death toll as it jumps from 500 (“More! More!”) to 750 (“Much better,”) after a bombing. She then throws to Middle East correspondent Harry Whiteguilt, who describes Hamas as “the most credible not-terrorist organization in the world.”

There was also a special Christmas sketch about the birth of Jesus Christ, who his parents say will be “King of the Jews.”

“Jews, what do you mean Jews?” asks a university professor. “You have to understand: Jews will only come to this land 1,948 years from now.” His student adds: “As a colonialist power.”

“What do you mean?” asks Jesus’ father. “We are Jews,” to which the professor says: “No, no you’re not. You are Palestinians, of course,” as the student puts a Palestinian scarf around the father’s neck.

Following October 7th, public venues have been closed, so Israeli comedians (who normally perform in Hebrew in front of thousands of locals on a nightly basis) have been using social media as their stage.

Matan Peretz is one of these comedians. He was called up by the IDF to be a reservist, but continued to make videos on social media in his military uniform, including one in which he addressed the “Jews for Palestine” folks:

“Hello ‘Jews for Palestine.’ I see a lot of you bragging online about ‘My grandfather is a Holocaust survivor, and what Israel is doing to the Palestinians…’ I don’t care how many chickens support KFC, it doesn’t make it right. No one in the slaughterhouse will go, ‘Oh this chicken, this one is on our side. Don’t kill him.’ No, never.”

Meital Avni, another Israeli comedian, decided to address the clothing retailer Zara, which recently ran a photo resembling the Palestinian flag.

“Good morning, Zara,” she said. “We saw the picture you posted yesterday with a red wall, white model, and green scarf, and you didn’t mean the Palestinian flag? No way! By accident, by chance. Do you know how many times I accidentally gave my child five doses of Tylenol when he has a fever, and sent him to kindergarten, completely by accident? Tell me, do you think we’re fools? Have an H&M Day.”

Yohay Sponder talked about the idea of “never again.”

“I’m upset because people promised us ‘never again’ after the Holocaust,” he said. “And it happened again. Now they say, ‘Never ever again.’ What’s the next one? Never ever ever ever ever ever ever again? Just tell us how many more times we have, so we know. Five more times? We want to know how many times. Stop lying to us.”

In another bit, Sponder asked: “We’re the bad guys? Are you shitting me? They shot from their hospitals, aimed at our hospitals, sometimes hitting their hospitals.”

Ann Avital made fun of the Hamas kidnappers in a skit in which she played two terrorists.

“It’s a little sad,” she said.

“What’s sad?”

“My favorite hostages are going back to Israel.”

“But you’ll get three Palestinian terrorists in Israeli jails for every one hostage.”

“They’re bad people.”

“I remember one terrorist who you loved.”

“He’s the one who doesn’t want to get released from the Israeli jail.”

“What?”

“He wants to stay in the Israeli jail.”

“Wave!”

“What?”

“They’re filming us.”

“So?”

“We want them to think that we were good to the hostages.”

“How can someone believe that we kidnapped them and then treated them well?”

“People are stupid.”

Mor Chen explained why Greta Thunberg, who has morphed from climate quasi-activist to pro-Palestinian champion, supports Hamas: “She says, ‘Yeah, of course they’re raping and beheading babies — but they’re doing it organically. They put all of the bodies in biodegradable bags.’”

Dvir Ayelet-Hashachar had a succinct message for the International Court of Justice: “Dear judges of the great court of The Hague, I just want to say that we” — and then he switches to Hebrew — “don’t give a flying fuck what you will decide until you will return our hostages to us.”

Then, back to English: “And we really hope you will stand with Israel. Thank you,” as he makes a heart with his fingers.

Mor Chen joked: “We’re all going to be really good in English when all of this ends.”