TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel's hottest new TV show may be making many viewers feel guilty, but they can't stop watching it.

It's a "Real Housewives" reality-based knockoff about six rich, materialistic women bouncing from personal training sessions in their mansions to Botox appointments to Champagne-fueled shopping binges, dishing dirt about one another and generally reveling in their own fabulousness.

Hardly scandalous stuff to American TV viewers. But in Israel — a nation founded on egalitarian ideals, where lawmakers wear jeans in the Knesset, or parliament, and the flaunting of wealth was once considered taboo — this celebration of the lifestyles of the rich is hitting a raw nerve.

"The show is just terrible," said Sharon Dushnitsky Etzioni, a Tel Aviv event planner. "It's not the real Israel." Then she adds, sheepishly: "But as much as I hate it, I can't miss it."

What "The Riches" depicts, though, may be more accurate than many in Israel would care to admit. In 20 years, Israel has whiplashed from being essentially a socialist state to a place with one of the world's biggest gaps between rich and poor.

That's partly because Israel's poor are getting poorer, but also largely because incomes of the superrich have soared to new levels, bolstered by tax cuts, deregulation and an influx of Russian entrepreneurs who brought money with them.

The number of Israeli billionaires doubled in the past two years to 16, while their combined wealth tripled to $45 billion, according to Forbes magazine. Recently deceased shipping magnate Sammy Ofer was richest with $10.3 billion, followed by diamond-mine mogul Benny Steinmetz and Carnival Cruise heiress Shari Arison.

The number of Israeli millionaires nearly doubled to 10,153 from 2008 to 2010, according to the Merrill Lynch-Capgemini World Wealth Report.

Those who are superrich are no longer squeamish about displaying their wealth. One tycoon is building a 60,000-square-foot estate in the ancient city of Caesarea, along the coast between Tel Aviv and Haifa. Plans are under way for a special terminal at Ben-Gurion Airport to handle the traffic in private planes and helicopters. Officials at the national motor vehicle department said recently that they had to draft new regulations to allow for the import of Rolls-Royces, Lamborghinis and Aston Martins.

"Before, people in Israel were ashamed to be rich," said real-estate broker Meir Menahem. "Even if you had money, you lived simply. Today people are not ashamed. If they are making money, they want to live better."

His firm, Neot Shiran, is helping the superrich find new places to spend their money by promoting exclusive residential communities along the Mediterranean Sea north of Tel Aviv, where former kibbutz-owned farmlands are being transformed into the Hamptons of Israel.

One of the most desirable spots is tiny, seaside and gated (naturally) Arsuf, where the price of one vacant lot tops $15 million, Menahem said.

If you're looking for that Malibu atmosphere and need space for tennis courts and stables, there's sprawling Bnei Zion, where all you can see from the roads are intercoms and driveways. Land is zoned agricultural, so it won't cost as much to fill the pool or water the putting green.

But Herzilya Pituach, nestled on the seaside bluffs of the north Tel Aviv district, remains the standard-bearer for those seeking the ultimate address. This year the sale of a $36 million home, next door to the U.S. ambassador's house, broke Israel's record for a residential transaction.

It's a high-end, all-cash market that didn't exist when Menahem started in the mid-1990s, when a 2,000-square-foot house was considered big and sales topping $1 million were rare.

Israel began shifting from its socialist roots in the 1980s and 1990s. Deregulation, privatization and tax cuts — which peaked when current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu served as finance minister a decade ago — opened opportunities for the nation's richest families and recently immigrated Russian oligarchs to take over former state-run businesses.

Today Israel's economy is one of the most concentrated in the world, with about a dozen tycoons controlling a large portion of the country's banks, manufacturers, real-estate firms, food producers, media outlets and retailers.

State-owned "corporations were sold off to very wealthy families and this provided opportunities to accumulate a lot of wealth," Hebrew University professor Michael Shalev said.

He said the growing income gap became one of the rallying cries of this summer's large social-justice protests, when hundreds of thousands of middle-class Israelis took to the streets over the rising cost of housing and food.

"It reflected a feeling of the people that these tycoons are robbing us," Shalev said.

Despite their resentment, many middle-class Israelis also aspire to emulate the rich lifestyles they see. "Israelis have largely embraced the idea, with vigor, that if you've got it, flaunt it," Shalev said.

That explains the success of the all-female reality show "The Riches," or "Meusharot" in Hebrew, which debuted in October and is already Israeli Channel 10's top-rated show.

"People in the middle want to see how the rich live, to open the door and look inside," Nicol Raidman, 25, one of the show's stars, said in her boutique along Tel Aviv's fanciest shopping avenue.

Raidman, a Ukrainian-born entrepreneur, credited her success to hard work, though fans note that having a much older, rich Russian boyfriend didn't hurt, either.

Many of the summer protesters called for the government to crack down on the superrich by increasing taxes, controlling prices for food and housing or breaking up private conglomerates. Such steps have found little support in the Knesset, although lawmakers voted this month to raise the top income-tax bracket from 45 percent to 48 percent.

"The direction that the social protesters want to take the economy is a grave mistake," said Raidman, the new reality-TV star. "They should be inspiring everyone to reach a higher level, rather than drag down those who already have."

Yet her show underscores the growing divide. During a recent episode, fellow cast member Eti Dudai decided to drive her Mercedes to a tent city in Tel Aviv to better understand their complaints. Channeling Marie Antoinette, she brought cake for them to eat.

News assistant Batsheva Sobelman in the Los Angeles Times' Jerusalem bureau contributed to this report.