President Obama traveled to Israel this week to work on relations with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who, despite the lack of personal warmth between the two that remains, has met with the President a total of ten times since 2008, the most of any foreign leader.
Among the issues discussed during Obama’s visit was the nuclear program, the deteriorating security in Syria, and the decades-old Palestinian conflict. The President also attempted to massage the distrusting relationship he currently has with Netanyahu, as well as the Israelis themselves, only ten percent of whom have a favorable attitude toward Obama.
Overall, Obama’s trip was a smooth venture for foreign relations. But for one online video news publication, Now This News, the scenario set up a plot suitable for a sitcom episode. Namely, an episode of Arrested Development.
“Obama in Israel” takes the place of the show’s title in a faux opening sequence, and with the chirpy Arrested theme music jingling in the background, the video covers the basics of Obama’s visit; the result is a deceivingly informational political clip disguised as entertainment. From a stuttered address by Press Secretary Jay Carney, to Obama happily confronting an Israeli heckler (“Ya know, I wouldn’t feel comfortable if I didn’t have at least one heckler,”), the video ends with Obama and Netanyahu (dubbed “Bibi” in the video) breaking unleavened bread together despite existing tension.
In its 1:11 span, the video calls attention to Obama’s message for peace between Israel and Palestine: “Two states, two peoples. Two states for two peoples,” he tells the crowd to applause, and the narrator (who is not Ron Howard) goes on to say that Obama wants to move Israel’s borders back to where they were before 1967–cue the sad, Peanuts piano tune, usually reserved for a depressed George Michael, as an upset Netanyahu appears on screen.
Signing off with “This is Obama in Israel,” the video proves not only that with a little creativity, politics can be made interesting, but that anything related to Arrested Development is sure to draw some buzz.
