Gadot joins satire amid stalled election

Channel 12 aired a two-part satirical special on Tuesday night, October 27, as Israelis waited for election results that had not yet produced a clear winner. The program, Eretz Nehederet, featured a guest appearance by actor Gal Gadot alongside its regular cast. The broadcast was divided into two segments, with the first airing before the polls closed and the second following exit polls that indicated a stalemate.

More than 70,000 Israelis who had returned from abroad participated in the vote. In the opening sketch, Yuval Semo played Asher, a cab driver, who picked up passengers from this group of returnees. Gadot, who is Israeli-born, appeared in the cab. Semo's character asked if she had returned to vote or to appear on The Masked Singer. Gadot replied that she had come to vote.

Gadot stated that she had lived outside of Israel for nearly 12 years. When pressed to reveal which party she supported, she whispered the name to Semo's character, and the audio was bleeped out before he could announce it. She quoted the historical figure Hillel the Elder, saying, "If not now, when?" Earlier in the day, Gadot had shared an Instagram story confirming she had voted for an opposition party, though she did not specify which one.

The actor spoke about the experience of being an Israeli and Jewish in Hollywood during a period of rising antisemitism. "It's hard these days to be an Israeli abroad," she said. She added that she often wore a mask when going out in public. Gadot said she tried to provide context to American audiences, noting that "what you see from there isn't what we see from here." She announced plans to return to Israel with her husband and four daughters, three of whom were born in the United States. The family is currently building a house in Israel.

The first half of the special opened with a sketch portraying political rivals as professional wrestlers. Gadi Eisenkot, the head of the Yashar party and former chief of staff, was depicted wielding a sawed-off shotgun. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was shown throwing around a gold suitcase of cash, referencing Qatari funds transferred to Hamas in Gaza with his government's approval. In another segment, Netanyahu held a toy mushroom to mock an AI image he released late in the campaign that depicted Tel Aviv destroyed by an Iranian nuclear bomb.

The show also targeted Naftali Bennett, the leader of the B'Yachad Party. A sketch depicted Bennett so absorbed in informal discussions with older citizens that he missed the opportunity to cast his ballot. Eisenkot was shown courting young voters alongside an influencer. A separate sketch featured former prime ministers Golda Meir, Yitzhak Rabin, Menachem Begin, and Ariel Sharon reacting to AI commercials.

In the second part of the broadcast, the writers addressed the inconclusive nature of the exit polls. A game show sketch featured Eisenkot, Bennett, and Avigdor Liberman of Yisrael Beytenu as contestants attempting to walk back their promises not to form coalitions with Arab or ultra-Orthodox parties. Members of the People of Israel Party, Ofer Winter and Yoseph Haddad, appeared in a sketch expressing disappointment that their party missed the threshold for Knesset entry. Haddad remarked that he seemed to be the only Arab not elected, highlighting the better-than-expected performance of other Arab parties.

The second broadcast concluded with a departure from the show's usual format. Host Eyal Kitzis did not deliver his standard line about Israel being a wonderful country. Instead, he handed the program directly to Channel 12 news anchor Yonit Levi.