TEL AVIV—Where is Hassan Nasrallah? On Eretz Nehederet, Israel’s most popular satire show, the elusive Hezbollah leader suddenly bursts into the news studio, shimmying with Israeli folk dancers and baffling news anchors by showing off his talent as a crooner. “What, don’t you understand?’’ asks an actor playing the Shiite cleric turned televangelist. “I was born to be on television! I’m a ratings magnet! I’m the biggest star you’ve had!” The sketch is less a lampoon of some crazy foreign leader than a statement about Israelis’ burgeoning national neurosis. Since the beginning of a conflict that has so far driven a million Israelis into bomb shelters, Sheik Nasrallah—to an extent unequalled by any other figure in the Arab world—has become a national anti-star.
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