It may have been New Year’s Eve last night, but on Eretz Nehederet, Israel’s popular sketch comedy series on Keshet’s Channel 12, it was Christmas: the episode portrayed US President Donald Trump (Omer Etzion) as Santa Claus, and lampooned Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu (Mariano Edelman), who approached Santa like a kid and asked for presents.
The setting for their encounter was Trump’s Florida luxury resort, Mar-a-Lago, where Bibi had a meeting with him earlier this week to discuss Iran and ending the war in Gaza. Trump asked Bibi if he had been a good boy, and Israel’s prime minister sat down in his lap.
The sketch mocked the contentious relationship between the two, where the prime minister is often subservient to the president but pretends not to be.
Bibi tried to prove to Santa-Trump by telling him that even though he torpedoed hostage agreements, did business with Qatar, and sold the country to the ultra-Orthodox, he brushed his teeth twice a day.
That was good enough for Trump, and Bibi asked for the present he most wanted for Christmas – that the US would let him blow up Iran. Trump, annoyed, said he already gave him that last year, and then sang a version of the opening of “Last Christmas” by Wham!: “Last Christmas, I gave you Iran/And the very next day, we blew it away.”
Trump admonished Bibi further: “I destroyed Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah, we left nothing there – except for Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah… You’re a war hero, Bibi. I’m a war hero. But sleepy Joe Biden, he’s not a war hero.”
Eretz Nehederet: Trump plays Santa with pardons and prizes
The love fest continued as Trump kept complimenting Bibi, saying, “If it wasn’t for you, Bibi, there was no Israel today – no earth, no sun, what would we do with no sun? We would have to build a big machonat shizuf [Hebrew for “tanning machine”] in the sky.”
Eventually, this became too much for host Eyal Kitzis, who reminded Trump that Bibi may have won the war, but if he hadn’t allowed Hamas to be funded for years, there might not have been a war.
Trump ignored him and said he and Bibi should dance to celebrate in the new ballroom he is building in the White House. Finally, agreed that Israel could bomb Iran again.
But Bibi wanted one more present: a pardon. Trump famously told President Isaac “Bougie” Herzog to pardon the prime minister when he addressed the Knesset on October 13, the day that all the living hostages were released, following Trump’s intervention. Just a few days ago, Trump told reporters that he had spoken to Herzog and that Netanyahu’s pardon was “on the way.”
On Eretz Nehederet, it turned out that Herzog (Roy Bar-Natan) was hiding inside one of Santa’s sacks.
Trump insisted that it really was “on the way,” but Herzog, joining the prime minister on Trump’s lap, tried to wiggle out of making a decision on the deal, while the US president beamed, saying, “Bougie and Bibi, so cute!”
The famously fickle Trump turned the tables on the prime minister, asking Bibi to give him a present and saying he wanted a Nobel Peace Prize. But Bibi could only offer an award from Education Minister Yoav Kish, not what the US president was hoping for.
Next, Bibi got a call from a Qatari leader, who said it was a mistake, and Trump told him it was time to move on to stage two of the Gaza peace deal. “It’s time to make Gaza great again and time to make Jared Kushner a billionaire again.”
Trump then invited Turkish President Recep Erdogan (Eli Finish) to help make peace in Gaza. “He’s a war hero,” enthused Trump. “Without him, there would be no Turkey, not the country or the chicken.”
It didn’t seem that Bibi and Erdogan would do too well as joint peacemakers, and Erdogan kept calling the US president Hitler as a term of endearment. But Trump insisted, “They’ll get along, I’m telling you, they’ll get along… Bibi, be nice, put the past behind you.”
It turned out that Erdogan also wanted presents, and Trump gave him quite a few goodies, including a fighter plane, Syria, and Gaza. In the spirit of New Year’s Eve, Trump said he was sure all would be well between the two leaders. “At midnight, I want you two to kiss,” he said, which was the cue for Sara Netanyahu (Alma Zack) to barge in, swilling champagne and decked out in a black sequined outfit, saying, “At midnight, Bibi kisses only me,” before she swiped the sack with the rest of Trump’s presents.
Other skits included an angry falafel stand owner (Orel Tsabari) from Kiryat Shmona, who said that now that Bibi has recognized Somaliland, it was time to recognize Kiryat Shmona, where only half the residents evacuated during the war have returned and are still waiting for government compensation.
Host Eyal Kitzis also interviewed an Iranian hacker who claimed to be behind the recent cyber attacks.
But it was Trump’s Santa Claus doling out presents to the world leaders he controls like puppets on a string that stole the show, greatly enhanced by Etzion’s Trump impersonation, which only seems to get sharper as time goes on.