Berkovich/Network 13
On May 21, 1996, Maccabi Haifa and Maccabi Tel Aviv met at the Bloomfield Stadium in Jaffa for the semi-final match of the State Cup in soccer.
It was the third meeting of the teams that season, and many claimed that this was the real final, with the winner being the one who would also easily win the final (which in retrospect proved to be true).
Just like in the two league games, this time also Maccabi Haifa was the one who won an early advantage, after Eyal Berkovich brilliantly scored for Chaim Rabivo, with a ball that cut through four yellow defenders.
Just like in the two league games, the greens were unable to keep the advantage until the end.
Maccabi Tel Aviv won 1:2, and went on to win a historic double.
However, this game is remembered less for Haifa's loss of the title, and more for the loss of temper of the Haifa magician, who in the heat of the game decided to make a scrambled omelet from the humbled limbs of Itzik Zohar. The referee of the game Sohil Daud did not He needed redshifts or VAR, which had not yet been invented, and issued Berkovic a justified red card. The news broadcasts covered the issue extensively, and in the archive you can still find clips of Miki Chaimovich, Yaakov Elon, Rina Mishleh and Rafi Rashef trying to explain to the viewers with a serious face and stately words how Eyal pulled Itzik by the balls.
Berkovich/screenshot, Network 13
The truth is that this is a very marginal anecdote from Barco's illustrious career.
After the success with Maccabi Haifa, Berkovich migrated to the British Isles, and recorded a legendary career there, most of which cannot be found in the dry statistical data.
On paper Bennion's career was much more impressive, with appearances and conquests in the Champions League, but those who saw Berkovic in real time make a circus out of the Manchester United defense with a bottom team like Southampton will probably never forget it.
In the eyes of the writer of these lines, he remains the most brilliant Israeli soccer player, one that every time the ball reaches him something unforgettable can happen.
After Berkovic's first participation in the "Zeman Shishi" panel, there was nothing left but to admit the truth: Channel 13 did not sign the playmaker who pulls out magic in the center of the field, but Berkovic who throws the testicles.
To be clear: this was exactly the intention, and Berkowitz is a victim of this casting almost as much as the viewers at home who are forced to watch this horror show that for some reason is still branded as a "newscast".
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Where is the magic?
Berkovich/screenshot, News 13
A little over a year ago, I published a review column on "Ofira and Berkovich", in which I wrote that most of the media in Israel could learn a lesson or two from the pair of moderators.
Last year has since been good enough to prove me right.
This is also why the idea of Eyal Berkovic on a news panel does not shock me as it shocks many of my colleagues.
Berko's opinions are no less interesting than most of the panelists who come to the news studios, he is not afraid to make a mistake just as he is not afraid to apologize when he is caught by mistake and above all: he is not a mouthpiece for any politician.
However, exactly one program with his participation in "Zeman Shishi" was enough to understand the gimmick: Netali Shem Tov gives news, Barko reacts, and then the other panel members fight with him.
It is not clear if the channel's new star arrived with over-motivation to prove his place as the network's new "spokesman of the truth", or if the channel's news editors encouraged him to take a line against everything said in the studio just to provoke arguments.
Hello, is this the Friday news release or the press stand?
This is one of the unfortunate editorial decisions known to the News 13 system, which consistently succeeds in erasing all the remnants of prestige still attached to it from the days of the late Channel 10.
Seeing that she had no way of erasing the gap in the rating from the "Olan Friday" edition, she decided to steal a move from parents of birthday children in the eighties, and they pulled a magician out of a hat.
As in those parties, this time too everyone wanted to leave in the middle.
Netali Shem Tov is supposedly the host of the show, but she is merely a supporting actress in the expanded cinematic universe that Channel 13 is trying to build around Eyal Berkovic.
He is the sun, the moon and the stars - they are merely satellites that are near him.
He's Berkovich, and everything else is aerobatics.
How twisted is the conscious decision to place all the eggs (sorry) in Barko's basket?
The main article in the edition, the one that was hyped in the promos and the one that appeared at the beginning of the program, was a conversation between Netali and Eyal with a nice group of pensioners in a cafe in Ashkelon.
Berkovich and Shem Tov/screenshot, News 13
If you ignore the low level of some of the questions ("Why don't you have pictures of Ashkenazim on the wall?") and also allegations that could still be included in the next lawsuit in The Hague ("All 2.5 million residents of Gaza are terrorists") - this article was very cute.
The people who are mockingly called "bibists" come in front of the camera and explain to one of the biggest opponents of the Likud government why they will continue to vote for Netanyahu in the next elections as well.
We've seen articles like this before, but something about Barko's authentic character made this conversation of the edges more fluid.
If Berkovich's contribution to the program had been limited to this article, it could have been a hit - but News 13 decided to squeeze this lemon more and more.
All the sugar in the world can't make lemonade out of this anymore.
To Berkovich's credit, even when he doesn't steal the show, the edition has a hard time carrying.
This is the case, for example, in the monologue of Netali Shem Tov who decided to attack Yair Lapid for his contradictory statements.
Yes, indeed Linon stole from Gal and the friends of Channel 14 the corner (which is entertaining in itself) of "The Night Torch".
The monologue was well done, and Shem Tov was sharp but fair with Lapid, whose zigzagging can definitely be said to be his art.
But we can only ask: who cares?
Who is Yair Lapid anyway?
Is Yair Lapid responsible for October 7?
Is Yair Lapid running the war?
Yair Lapid is sitting in the negotiations on the return of the abductees? In fact, Yair Lapid is a politician who today influences life in Israel a little more than Marev Michaeli. His political peak is behind him, and dealing with it is the opposite of news - it is yellow gossip.
The monologue of Shem Tov
The unnecessary monologue about Yair Lapid might not have been so infuriating, if we didn't know in retrospect what came long after it in "Zeman Shishi".
Deep into the program, long after Berkovic's lecture at the Roja Cafe in Ashkelon, they remembered to show us the interview of Netali Shem Tov and Yossi Eli with the IDF soldiers who rescued the abductees from Rafih. The article was fascinating, and even included a spontaneous and moving phone conversation between women The excited hostages for the humble fighters. Now imagine that the year is 1976, and the news is interviewing the heroes of the Israel Defense Forces patrol who a few days earlier rescued the hostages from Entebbe - but the article comes up late, after we finished watching Nahum Stelmech talking to the members of parliament about the "Peninat Chen" ransom in Holon
The result of this television mutation, which still includes some of the best news people in Israel, alongside editorial decisions that seem to have been taken from a broken artificial intelligence generator - yielded a 5% rating (128 thousand viewers).
For the sake of comparison, here 11, without the debut of a huge TV star like Eyal Berkowitz, recorded 4.1% (115 thousand viewers), a difference of less than one percent from Channel 13.
Berkowitz's show on Friday night - and again, let there be no doubt, it's Berkowitz's show ' - is no longer a news release.
This is a call for help from a channel that doesn't know what to do to save itself from collapse.
The answer, by the way, is: "Not like that."
It is not too late to admit a mistake.
If not for the viewers, then for Berkovich himself, who deserves quite a bit of credit for deciding to take this step outside the comfort zone of Ophira and Arc 12.
As we know him, we can expect him to blow the story himself and disappear to "talk to The Alligators" before one of the following programs.
Just as he would have blown up the practice if he found out that the coach intended to put him in goal instead of in the middle of the field.
Berkovich is not a goalkeeper, and whoever decides to put gloves on him and send him to take balls out of the net simply does not understand what he is doing.
Just as whoever decided to put Berkovich as a counter to Amnon Abramovich and Amit Segal should get a yellow card.
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