Jerusalem (CNS) – Yasser Arafat's PLO was directly responsible for the assault on Israel's athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, one of the men who oversaw the attack has confirmed 27 years later.
Posted on 12/16/2005 11:02:47 AM PST by pcottraux
Bingo! When demmonizing mass-murdering Stalinist international socialists becomes as popular as demonizing mass-murdering Hitlerite national socialists, we'll know that our culture has finally taken a turn toward toward intellectual honesty.
One of the biggest lies in popular culture is the idea that National Socialism is a "right-wing" phenomenon.
Correction: 6 million Jews dead ... the National Socialists killed 11-12 million total people in Hitler's death camps.
When I was in highschool, this was common knowledge ... somehow, in the last decade or so, half of Hitler's death camp victims got dropped down the memory hole. The result is a half-truth; worse than an outright lie.
In the name of all that's holy (or at least in the name of intellectual honesty and historical accuracy) let's not participate in the dishonesty of half-truths ... Just say "no" to holocaust-denial.
Arafat authorized the creation of the Black September terrorist organization and was essentially its secret chief executive officer. But he had it set up in a way that he could claim plausible deniability for its actions even though he had to personally approve all of its major operations. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I even think that he made the statement at some point that Black September WAS the PLO/Fatah.
"Spielberg's track record is the best in Hollywood."
Yep. An amazing talent for reaching massive audiences with brilliant cinematic storytelling technique. Lots of people in Hollywood claim to know what "works." But Spielberg is the only one to have proven it so consistently over time.
Steven Spielberg hired Tony Kushner last year to rewrite the script of a movie about Israel’s clandestine - and lethal - response to the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Kushner has been quoted in an interview with the Times of London, where he declared:
I deplore the brutal and illegal tactics of the Israeli Defense Forces in the occupied territories. I deplore the occupation, the forced evacuations, the settlements, the refugee camps, the whole shameful history of the dreadful suffering of the Palestinian people; Jews, of all people, with our history of suffering, should refuse to treat our fellow human beings like that...I think the founding of the State of Israel was for the Jewish people a historical, moral, political calamity.... I wish modern Israel hadn’t been born.Spielberg says this in an interview with Time’s Richard Schickel, on the non-judgmental tone of his new movie:
I think the thing I’m very proud of is that [screenwriter] Tony Kushner and I and the actors did not demonize anyone in the film. We don’t demonize our targets. They’re individuals. They have families. Although what happened in Munich I condemn.That's liberal psychobabel at its gaudiest, and could be as equally non-judgemental of monsters such as Hitler, Stalin, or Pol-Pot. The film’s intended message can be gleaned from this little gem from Time’s cover story:
There is an entirely fictional scene in the movie in which [the leader of the Israeli hit squad] and his Palestinian opposite number meet and talk calmly, with the latter getting a chance to make his case for the creation of a homeland for his people. That scene means everything to Kushner and Spielberg..... Without that exchange, 'I would [said Spielberg] have been making a Charles Bronson movie - good guys vs. bad guys and Jews killing Arabs without any context. And I was never going to make that picture.'For all pragmatic purposes, Spielberg's intent is to portray Palestinian terrorists as calm, reasonable human beings, and muddying any possible distinctions between the good guys and bad guys. That he and Kushner flat out have to depend on an entirely fabricated scene to do just that, well, at least with E.T. and Jurassic Park viewers knew they were getting fiction. This is not so emminently true with Hollywood productions like The Manchurian Candidate remake, or network televisions The Commander in Chief. You can argue until the cows come home with some people about Farenheit 911, but it won't make a lick of a difference. "Did you see it? No? Well, then you don't know what you're talking about." To them, Roger Moore's vomitus is akin to Holy Writ.
Not much of anything is said concerning the guilt of the Israeli athletes in Munich. What did they do to deserve being murdered, and in Germany (of all places), less than thirty years after the Holocaust? That's black sarcasm at its best, and irony at its most horrific. Of course Israel's response to that was guided by a Zionism then at its height rather than the self-loathing and abasement that exists among the Israeli elite today.
Interestingly enough though, the guy makes no reference to the chief financier of The Munich Massacre, Abu Mazen, who just so happens to be the present leader of the Palestinian Authority. Keep in mind also, our own elected leaders not merely engage with this old terrorist, they've outright rolled out the red carpet before him to our White House and our Capitol.
Those currently in power in Hollywood want a world in which there are no absolutes of morality. A world of gray...so that the Self-Centered-Desire-Of-The-Moment can be fulfilled without interference of conscience... They will side with "Bad" Guy in "Black" because darkness covers the real ugliness of the events... Think about some of the tabloids' reports of late night clubs and how totally ridiculous & perhaps even disgusting to themselves the celebrity patrons would look if the floodlights suddenly came on & the music stopped.
The difference between the violence done by Islamic Terrorists and violence done by the Israelis... Well, Israelis do not strap bombs onto mentally disabled children. Or for that matter pay parents to have a child become a suicide bomber. Terrorists do not need to be understood, they need to truly meet the One God...
You know, though, I'd probably go see a Jame's Bond 9/11 movie, but only if Gene Simmons was cast as James Bond (now runs away in all haste and fear of life before things are hurled!). But then it wouldn't be a Roger Moore James Bond movie would it? O.k., nothing to see here, just move along...
Well said.
Have either of you noticed that in a terrible way, Nazis used to be the most useful villains in movies, but they have been replaced by...CORPORATIONS!!!
Good analysis. A good retort to EMerson's intellectual-ness, which I'd like to see more of.
Oh, wait, how could I not ping YOU to this one?
I am not a big fan of his, though I've enjoyed several of his movies. But pretending he is anything but the biggest boy on the block in Hollywood career-success-wise is just silly.
Mel Gibson has directed two big hits and one minor one. Many directors can say the same.
Jackson has directed a trilogy that's been beloved for decades and has a huge fan base. Don't get me wrong, I loved the LOTR movies and never read the books, so I'm not slagging the guy. But there are enormous flaws in the trilogy, which is probably my favorite fantasy movie (I count it as one, as does Jackson).
Potential major competition? Sure. But come back in 30 years and we'll see. Spielberg's been directing huge hits since the mid-seventies, and Jackson and Gibson probably won't even live long enough to topple his record.
On a personal preference, I prefer those two to Spielberg, but they're not even in his league.
By the way, I read your vanity... and I agree with what you wrote. Now, let me read this article.
Durban was the UN Conference that declared the Zionism was racism and Israel a racist state.
This movie has less to do with Munich and more to do with our response to 9/11. How he portrays the Israeli response is how he sees our response.
To me, you can't equate the two. What Black September did was loathsome. They had death coming especially since the West did not care to exercise justice. The Germans let them the surviving terrorists go. Just let them go, even though there was a "hijacking" to cover up the fact.
No one defends Israel... and when she defends herself, she is hammered as being immoral or worse more repugnant than the terrorists, who broke into an Olympic village and murdered 12 athletes. The guilty are the Palestinians... and any attempt to portray it any other way is wrong. To me... it's that simple.
ROTFLOL! I love the jar-o'-fat!
I just love this...
First of all, Israel got the land by international decree...It's called the Mandate...Which was changed without due process three times.
Second of all, say what you want about the Irgun, (whether they were or were not a terrorist organization is a matter for history.) For the record...even though out last postings ended up in insults... I do not believe that the Irgun were terrorists. They are not equated with Hamas or any of the other terrorist groups that attack Israelis on a daily basis. The Irgun attacked government and military for one reason... the British were denying the Holocaust survivors access to the land because the British had decided to back the Arabs in the dispute over the land. In fact, (and I know that you are well aware of this) the British answer to the Holocaust was for the Jews to go back and rebuild Germany.
As for the King David Hotel... there is much confusion about what happened. The Irgun has always stated that they made phone calls announcing the bomb and giving the British plenty of time to evacuate. But, for the Irgun, the very survival of Jews were at stake. After 6,000,000 dead, the Irgun had every reason to have that concern.
The Palestinians don't have the same concern. If they would sit down and negotiate and give up their passion for the entire land, they would have their state. But, they don't.
Not the same...And to put the Irgun and Black September in the same moral equivelent category is plain wrong...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
