Gal Gadot flew into an Israeli taxi and into the hearts of a tense nation on Tuesday night, October 28, 2026, as the Hollywood superstar appeared on a special two-part election broadcast of Eretz Nehederet on Channel 12. The satirical show, beamed out while Israelis waited for the results of one of the most consequential elections in the country's history, gave a politically divided public a rare moment of shared laughter.
According to The Jerusalem Post, the broadcast was split in two: the first half aired before the polls closed, the second after exit polls showed an inconclusive result that satisfied neither camp. Gadot's cameo anchored the first, more hopeful half.
Gadot in Asher's cab: a homecoming with meaning
The most memorable sketch put Gadot in the passenger seat of Asher, the chatty cabbie played by Yuval Semo who always says exactly what is on his mind. Fresh off a plane, Gadot stood in for the more than 70,000 Israelis who returned from abroad specifically to vote, a figure that says something powerful about the pull this country exerts on its own, wherever they live.
She confirmed she had come home to vote, and when Asher hailed her as a Zionist and a patriot, she answered with words that have echoed through Jewish life for two thousand years.
If not now, when?
The line, attributed to Hillel the Elder, was not just a punchline. Gadot, who has lived in the United States for almost 12 years and starred in two Wonder Woman films since, has posted on Instagram that she backed an opposition party, without naming it. She told Asher she whispers her choice, and when she did, he grabbed his megaphone and announced it to the whole cab station, with the party name bleeped out.
What Gadot said about being Israeli abroad
The conversation turned serious when Gadot spoke about the difficulty of being an Israeli and a Jew in Hollywood at a time of rising antisemitism.
It's hard these days to be an Israeli abroad.
She said she often wears masks in public, as if the pandemic had never ended, and that she works to give Americans context about Israel.
There's a lot of hate. I try to explain to them, what you see from there isn't what we see from here. And what we see here, you don't see there.
She also said she plans to return to Israel for good with her husband and four daughters, three of whom were born in the US, and that the family is building a house here. The sketch ended with Gadot, drawing on her Fast and Furious credentials, taking the wheel herself and turning Asher's cab into a flying car so she could reach a polling station in time.
For a country often lectured from abroad, there is a quiet power in a global icon saying plainly that her future is here. As Comic Basics reported, Gadot's high-visibility voting clip stood out as proof of the influence global stars can have when they engage directly with Israeli affairs.
Eretz Nehederet's satire spared no one
The show's writers, working against the clock, opened with the political rivals reimagined as professional wrestlers in absurd costumes. Gadi Eisenkot of the Yashar party, played by Semo, wielded a sawed-off shotgun, while a Netanyahu portrayed by Mariano Eidelman hurled a huge gold suitcase of cash, a jab at the Qatari money that reached Hamas in Gaza.
Other targets followed. A Netanyahu sketch at a shopping mall showed him brandishing a toy ceramic mushroom as a nuclear cloud, mocking an AI image the prime minister actually released in the campaign's final days purporting to show Tel Aviv destroyed by an Iranian bomb. Naftali Bennett of the B'Yachad Party was ribbed for spending so much time with the elderly 'parliamentim' discussion groups that he missed his chance to vote. A flashback showed AI commercials pitched to Golda Meir, Yitzhak Rabin, Menachem Begin, and Ariel Sharon, all of whom missed the point entirely.
An inconclusive result and comedy under pressure
After the exit polls, the writers had to find humor in a deadlock, with neither bloc winning enough seats to govern. One sketch showed Eisenkot, Bennett, and Avigdor Liberman of Israel Beitenu on a game show called 'Excuse the Promise,' walking back their vows never to sit with Arab or ultra-Orthodox parties. Ofer Winter and Yoseph Haddad appeared stunned that their People of Israel Party had fallen short of the Knesset threshold, with Haddad joking he seemed to be the only Arab who had not been elected, a nod to the Arab parties' stronger-than-expected showing.
Even the sign-off changed. Instead of host Eyal Kitzis's usual line about Israel being a wonderful country, the second half simply handed the broadcast back to Channel 12 anchor Yonit Levi, an unsettling note for an unsettled night.
Why this matters beyond the laughs
Israeli satire has always been a survival tool, from the days when a young state laughed so it would not cry. On a night when the exit polls offered no verdict, Eretz Nehederet did what it has done for years: it held a fractured nation together for two hours in front of one screen.
That Israelis by the tens of thousands dropped everything to fly home and vote, and that Gadot among them spoke of building her house here, is the deeper story of the night. Governments may come and go, coalitions may take weeks to form, but the bond between this people and this land needs no exit poll to confirm it.
FAQ
When did Gal Gadot appear on Eretz Nehederet?
She appeared on Tuesday night, October 28, 2026, during the show's special two-part election broadcast on Channel 12.
What did Gal Gadot say about living abroad?
She said it is hard to be an Israeli abroad amid rising antisemitism, that she wears masks in public, and that she plans to return to Israel with her husband and four daughters.
What was the election result shown on the broadcast?
The exit polls were inconclusive, with neither side winning enough seats to form a government, according to The Jerusalem Post's report.