Satire for the Masses

[eumelia]

The Israeli Socio-Political Satire show Eretz Nehedret - ארץ נהדרת - lit. Wonderful Country is probably one of the sharpest, most biting, satires on television today.
They are definitely up there (at least in my book) with "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report".

On this week's show they had a sketch of hip-hop Hasbarah (Hebrew for "explanation" and what is colloquially known as Israeli for describing the efforts of explaining Israeli government policies, and to promote Israel to the world at large)

The video is brilliant - but unfortunately cannot be embedded at this time, so I've put the direct link here and translated the lyrics which are a mixture of Hebrew and English (everything emphasised is me translating the Hebrew/Hebrish terms)
Link to Video: It's Time for a War Anthem.

יו יו, איטס טיים פור המנון מלחמה - Yo yo, its time for a war anthem
I wake up in the morning and suddenly fall on me TIL (TIL=Rocket)
How would you feel if someone throws on you TIL
לא בשביל זה בנינו בית יהודי (We didn't build a Jewish home for this)

The children theys it in M.M.D
We cant go to MAKOLET (Grocery store), we cant go to school
But you don't understand because you live LACHEM BECHUL (you live overseas)
How would you feel if in Paris they throw on you TIL
You ask for croissant but instead they throw on you TIL
Our army is הכי מוסרי בעולם
או לפחות בין החמישה המוסריים מכולם
טוב אולי אפשר לסגור
על הכי מוסרי באזור
(Our army is the most moral is the world
Or at the very least top five
Well maybe we can settle for
Most moral is this part of the world)

They throw on us TILIM (rockets), we come with METOSIM (planes)
But remember who started shooting on EZRACHIM (civilians
How do you feel if in London they shoot on EZRACHIM (civilians)
You want LASHUT (to row or sail) in the TEMZA (the Thames river) but instead they shoot on EZRACHIM (civilians)

If you ask why we fight
we say
They started
If you ask why we bomb
we say
They started
If you ask what we want
we say
.....

It's so hard when there is TZEVA ADOM ("Colour Red", the code for Qassam barrage)
We have to לארח תושבות מהדרום (we have to have people from the south - female pronoun)
They walk naked in the house, they are so MISKENOT (miserable)
Because גראד פגע להן בחדר ארונות (Because a Grad hit their closet wardrobe)

You support us or we take Benayun from Liverpool
And we tell Noa Tishbi to take back BETIPUL (In Treatment - referring to the new hit HBO show)
We take Bar Refaeli, נשאיר את ליאו בלי כלום (We leave Leo with nothing)
Lets see him dating with Um Kultum
How do you feel if Leo was dating Um Kultum
And in "Sports Illustrated" instead of Bar there's Um Kultum

Look on us
Look on them
מי יותר דומה לכם (Who resembles you more)
We have McDonalds
תיכף H&M
אפילו סודוך לא הגיע אליהם
אם לא תהיו בעדינו, לא תהיה ברירה
נזכיר לכם מה פעם באירופה קרה.
(הדי ג'יי: ) "שריפה אחים שריפה"....
נראה לי שהנקודה ברורה
(Even Soduko hasn't reached them
If you're not on our side we;ll have no choice
We'll remind you what happened on Europe
(the DJ) "Fire, Bros, Fire"...
I think the point is clear)

Now you know how it feels if someone throws on you TIL
I hope they know how it feels if someone throws on you TIL
Support us, Hate them!
X-Plain!

Hilarious!
So biting and true!
Though, I acknowledge... it may only be funny for the Israelis and other Hebrew speakers here.

Comments

[corvus.livejournal.com]

Holy shit.

This is brilliant.

I'm off to another fun protest at the Israeli consulate!

Weeeeeeeeeeee!

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!

[schemingreader.livejournal.com]

I watched it first before I saw that you had all the words here! It's significantly funnier to me as an American who speaks Hebrew as a second language, because of all the funny/typical Israeli English. Also the argument:

If you ask why we fight
we say
They started
If you ask why we bomb
we say
They started
If you ask what we want
we say

Yeah, that's pretty much the state of hasbara b'chul.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I can't stop watching it!
It's so hilarious.
You can watch all the episodes on that website by the way, it's one of the best shows.

[schemingreader.livejournal.com]

My mom posted to Facebook a link to the New York Times article insisting that there was complete consensus in Israel about the war. I didn't know how to react.

Today, I posted a link to this video to my FB. My mom won't be able to resist it because its in Hebrew and tzrichim tamid l'targel. Ha ha!

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Oy! Seriously? Ugh, I wish the media would stop clumping countries and various peoples as monoliths... it does no one any good.

I hope your mom enjoys! My parents thought it was quite funny too!