The internet was awash with rage on Tuesday after late-night talk show host Assaf Harel satirized the Entebbe operation -- an IDF counter-terrorist hostage rescue mission at the Entebbe Airport in Uganda in 1976 -- in a way that many found offensive. In addition to the four hostages who were killed, then-Sayeret Matkal commander Yonatan Netanyahu, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's older brother, lost his life during the rescue mission. On his show, Good Night with Assaf Harel, the host aired a comedy sketch depicting the Ugandan aftermath of the operation. With the help of another actor, who told the fabricated story of Ugandan soldier Abebo Mandesa, who supposedly shot and killed Yoni Netanyahu, Harel drew obvious parallels between the actual impact of the operation on Israel and the imagined impact on Uganda. In the controversial sketch, the Ugandan soldier who killed Netanyahu becomes a hero in his country, much like Netanyahu became a hero in Israel, and his brother (an allusion to Netanyahu's brother, Benjamin) is elected to serve as prime minister of Uganda thanks, in part, to his brother's popularity. After the sketch, Harel aired a clip of the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" where the repeated "wimoweh" refrain was substituted with the Hebrew for "because Yoni died," and, referencing Sunday's ceremony in Entebbe marking the 40th anniversary of the operation, the words were changed to "a moronic ceremony ... 28 million shekels were wasted on an embarrassing ceremony." The sketch and the clip immediately sparked a massive backlash, with viewers expressing the anger on the show's Facebook page. "There is no end to the audacity, condescension and contempt for an IDF officer who was killed in action," irate viewer Hillel Bitton wrote. "I can't believe that I am writing this about an Israeli, a Jew, who hosts a show on an Israeli television channel." "All this filth for just a drop in a sea of rating," added Adir Bruner. "They go home and feel good about themselves like, 'Wow, I'm a television host.'" Additional angry responses were posted both on Facebook and elsewhere. The prime minister, meanwhile, continued his historic four-day Africa tour. An associate of Netanyahu said Wednesday that the sketch was "a despicable act. How low can Channel 10 go to disparage a hero who fell in battle while trying to rescue our people, just out of political hatred for his brother, the prime minister- Channel 10, which airs Harel's show, did not comment.
