Will <i>Wonderful Country</i> do wonders for Barak?

Labor leader appears on popular television satire 'Eretz Nehederet.'

By SHELLY PAZ
barak eretz nehederet 248 88 (photo credit: Channel 2 [file])
barak eretz nehederet 248 88
(photo credit: Channel 2 [file])
Labor Party Chairman Ehud Barak on Tuesday became the first of the three big party leaders to accept an invitation to appear on Channel 2's popular satirical show, Eretz Nehederet (A Wonderful Country). Barak participated in a skit in the show's season-opener on Tuesday night. Kadima head Tzipi Livni and Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu will decide whether to appear on the show after it becomes clearer how Barak's performance affected his race for the premiership. Barak's skit showed him searching for a new home to replace his luxury apartment in Tel Aviv's Akirov Towers. The Labor leader has come under heavy flak for purchasing the $2.5 million flat in 2006, which he is now trying to sell for some $11m. In the skit, Barak tries, with no success, to get accepted to a regular apartment building, where the residents justify their refusal by telling him that someone had just published ads saying he wasn't nice, trendy or a buddy (from Labor's own election campaign). According to Eretz Nehederet staff, Barak's participation was supposed to be kept secret until airtime, but somehow the beans were spilled early on Tuesday, just in time for the morning radio news shows. Livni and her people haven't decided how to respond to the show's invitation and sources close to Netanyahu doubt he will accept. Appearances by politicians on talk shows and satirical programs are hardly an Israeli invention. During the recent US presidential campaign, a long line of politicians jumped at the chance to take part in skits that poked fun at them.