Keshet, Israel’s top commercial broadcaster, airs a weekly talk show starring two provocative hosts: sports journalist Ofira Asayag and Eyal Berkovic, a former midfielder on Israel’s national football team and current sports commentator. Their show is devoted to current events, not sports, and the hosts' unrestrained style appears designed to generate public controversy.

On Aug. 17, the show crossed yet another line, forcing the network's bosses to punish the hosts for their flagrantly racist remarks. In her introductory remarks, Asayag noted that Arab Knesset members refuse to come on the show, to which Berkovic responded by calling them “terrorists,” “spies” and “Israel haters,” with Asayag grinning at his side.

It was an unusually crude performance, one of the more racist seen on Israeli TV even during times of war and military operations. The show was suspended for a week, but effects of the move are questionable. The comments on various news sites said it all. Viewers could not understand why the network suspended the show, saying Berkovic and Asayag were merely expressing how many Israelis feel about the country’s Arab lawmakers.

The display of hatred reflects the public climate nurtured, among other things, by wild incitement on the part of right-wing leaders, chief among them Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman.