Israeli Survivor

Last night was the final episode of the Israeli "pseudo reality" TV show, "Hisardut" (Survivor -- apparently based on a US show I've never seen), and was the buzz of radio talk shows this morning.

Over 46% of Jewish Israeli households watched the final moments of the show to see who the winner of "Survivor" was last night at 11:30 PM (something like over 1.3 million people)

The show doesn't deserve to be written about, I will just make 2 points.

The winner of the show, "Naama" Kesari left a few month old infant to participate in the show for over 52 days. She also left her dying father...and he in fact died not long after she returned home to Israel from the "Caribbeans Island" where most of the show was filmed. (It was reported through the season by different newspapers that the contestants weren't really "alone" on a deserted island, and in some pictures one could make out homes in the background)

I can understand men or women who have to leave home for business trips, but to participate in a reality TV show leaving a baby at home and a dying father? What sort of woman throws away the last few months of her father's life or the importance of being with her child, to participate on a TV show for a chance to win a jeep and a few thousand dollars?

The judges (the losing contestants) voted her as the best survivor, throwing out a nasty lawyer "Dan" who lied to everyone left and right to get to the end. It's not surprising that he is already talking about going into politics in Israel.

Is this trash TV program a reflection of Israeli society? A group of fellow citizens who had "gone overseas, split into groups, run around in bathing suits, plotted, lied, avoided showers and put snakes and ticks in their hair" -- along with eating snakes and killing chickens for fun? (Haaretz)

Who is in the Knesset today? Liers, theives and political prostitutes, many who abandoned their party platform of the Likud to carry out the Disengagement -- throwing close to ten thousand Jews out of their homes. Their reality continues every day, with unemployment at over 50%, and more than 90% without permanent housing solutions. They were democratically thrown off the island into shark infested waters that continue to harass them daily.

While the finalists of Israeli Survivor many not be Kadima's politicians of tomorrow, Shimon Peres and Ehud Olmert's government need to stop treating the State of Israel as a reality show.

I guess we've survived worse.

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד