The Most Annoying Israeli in the World

Israel's Channel 8, which regularly foists documentaries and educational programs of varying quality upon us, has unfortunately chosen to inflict Israel's most asinine expatriate on the Hebrew speaking world. The irritator in question is Canadian-Israeli television producer Simcha Jacobovici and his show The Naked Archeologist.

For the uninitiated, the show involves little more than Jacobovici running around Israel making an ass out of himself and spinning ridiculous theories about various Biblical and Bible-related events in the most pompous manner possible. What makes the show so galling is not so much Jacobovici's spurious claims, which are fairly obviously ludicrous, such as when he tells us in one episode that the Biblical fragments found in the Dead Sea Scrolls are identical to the Masoretic text (they aren't) or his assertion that the Israeli Antiquities Authority may have declared the James ossuary a fake in order to spuriously prosecute a prominent private collector (if this sounds like something pretty close to slander, its because it is) but rather his pestilent on-screen persona.

Constantly preening for the camera, Jacobovici keeps up a relentlessly self-aggrandizing and thoroughly obnoxious monologue throughout the show, commenting on nearly everything he trains his camera on, which is mostly himself. In between insulting credentialed archaeologists for not agreeing with his theories, perhaps the most famous of which is the "Jesus family tomb", Jacobovici clowns for his viewers in a manner which his credentialed (and therefore inherently untrustworthy) opponents would likely describe, with understatement, as unprofessional in the extreme. Perhaps the most idiotic of his lens-hogging stunts is breaking into a closed archaeological site possibly connected to John the Baptist all the while proclaiming "why would they hide this from people?"

This P.T. Barnum-style theatricality leaves the viewer with little more than the inevitable conclusion that the site is likely closed in order to protect it from idiots like Simcha. Other sites have undertaken extensive criticisms of Jacobovici's various theories regarding Biblical history, such as his claim that refugees from the Exodus somehow got to Mycenae and carved a visual history of the Exodus on to a tomb (the evil credential-holding archaeologists think the carving represents a chariot race) so I will not belabor the passing reader with the details. I will merely note that the egregious con-job now being foisted on the Israeli public by Jacobovici and his collaborators (filmmaker James Cameron apparently among them) is perhaps best illustrated by the show's title itself, which implies, of course, that its host is the (thankfully not actually naked) archaeologist in question.

Jacobovici, needless to say, has degrees in philosophy, political science and international relations, but no credentials in the field of archeology whatsoever. Such scurrilous dishonesty may lead the viewer to conclude that the show is as trustworthy as its title. We can only hope.