Julia Louis-Dreyfus in 'Veep.' Damage control following daughter's anti-Israel essay
Photo: HBO
Kevin Spacey in 'House of Cards.' Jewish lobby against secretary of state candidate
Officials: US shows critical of Israel
Sources at Israeli Embassy in Washington say negative representation of Jewish state on television series like 'Veep,' 'House of Cards' justifies 'conspiracy theories about the Israeli and Jewish control of American politics'
Popular American television shows are presenting Israel
in a highly critical manner, sources in Israeli Embassy in Washington say, expressing their concern that the negative characterization will badly affect the Jewish state's image among viewers.
The article undermines the relationship between the White House and the Jewish lobby, forcing the vice president to schedule a damage control interview. But the setting is quite unhelpful: She is seen discussing the friendship between America and the Jewish state with a pig roast in the background.
One of the recent episodes of HBO comedy series "Veep," starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, focused on the Middle East conflict: The US vice president's daughter, a college student who has a boyfriend of Iranian descent, slams Israel in an essay based on Oscar-nominated film "5 Broken Cameras."
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An episode in American political drama series "House of Cards" is also said to have presented Israel in a critical manner: In order to thwart the president's choice for secretary of state, Representative Francis Underwood (played by Kevin Spacey) uses an editorial published by the candidate 30 years earlier in his college student newspaper, in which he criticized Israel's "illegal occupation" of Palestinian land.
Jewish organizations rush to accuse the candidate of being anti-Semitic, and although he repeatedly claims that he did not write the article, the president is forced to withdraw the nomination.
"These series present Israel as a country which one should be very careful not to offend, and that anyone daring to criticize it is reprimanded by the Jewish lobby," a senior state official says. "This justifies all conspiracy theories about the Israeli and Jewish control of American politics."
