Posted on 12/28/2005 10:27:44 AM PST by SquirrelKing
Wow. Didn't know that. I'd have a fit too, I guess.
"My chief concern is the reflective self doubting that has entered Mossad related literature as of late. This gut gnawing questioning of the morality of killing terrorists and characters abandoning their righteous posts stinks of Le Carre’s leftist “The Spy that Came in From the Cold.”
I guess I would have to see the level of self doubt and the overall portrayal. This review makes it sound like the Mossad operatives were consummate professionals who got the job done, and for whom self doubt was a mission accomplished post facto indulgence.
"I do hope the film points out what bungling buffoons the Germans were in this tragedy."
For that you need to rent Arthur Cohn's "One Day in September." The Germans were portrayed as incompetent appeasers. The Olympic Committee was more concerned about the games than about a few expendable Israeli athletes.
I pick my movies very carefully these days. Hollywood gets me so ticked off that instead of actors I see political useful idiots on the screen.
I just put that title on hold at my local library.
Yeah, I keep adding more and more actors to my list of those whom I will not watch their movies.
After reading the review, if, and that is a big IF, I were to see Munich, it would be a partial viewing. The thing to do would be to get up and walk out after 2 1/2 hours when the tone of the movie changes.
I'll withhold judgment until this comes out on DVD and I get to see it. I am going to keep an open mind though because I got burned listening to a lot of Freepers on the movie Kingdom of Heaven. Seems FR was awash with posters ripping the film for being a piece of Islamic propaganda. I finally saw it and didn't come away with that impression at all. It was primariy a historical action flick which showed both good and bad muslims and good and bad Christians. The final battle scenes depicting the siege of Jerusalem were very well done and were quite exciting. I thought it was a pretty good flick other than the main character being hopefully miscast. Sorry but guy (can't recall his name) does not make a convincing macho warrier at all. He's more a sensitive touchy feely type. Russel Crowe would have been perfect in that role.
Here is an article that says the whole IDF and Israeli government has become Le Carre like in their aversion to battle. There is certainly a strong element of that in Israeli society as well.
The much maligned settlers still have the guts and the will. That's why the left hates them so much.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/663595.html
Not that FReepers are ever too far off mark, but somtimes a movie is just a movie.
Does that include the left in Israel? The fact that Sharon is so well supported, despite forced evictions, is a testimony to me that current Israeli thinking is similar to the pacifistic denial that got Polish Jews killed in the Warsaw Ghetto.
Actually security is the #1 political issue for most Israelis, far above the economy and other issues despite the fact that 20% live below the poverty line. It is the reason that Sharon was first elected and the reason his personal popularity continues to be very high - so high that he can form a new party that instantly shoots to the top of the polls.
Israelis are nothing if not practical. Gaza was a cess pool that should have been ceded back to its original ruler, Egypt - but Egypt was too smart to take on the Pals (after having seen what they tried to do in Jordan). So Israel kept Gaza - which was a huge drain economically and militarily. The Generals have been wanting to jettison this piece of garbage for many years.
Give Sharon credit for building fences, cutting his losses, and forging ahead. Terrorist bombings are down 95% since he came to office. That is why he is popular.
"The Generals have been wanting to jettison this piece of garbage for many years."
Not exactly.
"The situation on Israel's southern border, and in the Philadelphi corridor, is a complex barometer for all of the region's problems. Not only does it register the ups and downs in Israeli-Palestinian relations. It reflects the state of Egypt's relations with Israel and the Palestinians, and the situation in Egypt and Gaza itself, where sub-state actors, led by Islamists, have progressively eroded the authority of the Egyptian state and the PA. Smuggling and infiltration must be understood—and fought—in these broader contexts.
The United States has to shift its perspective on this issue. The smuggling and infiltration network should be regarded as part and parcel of the global terrorism network, and the battle against it as part of the global war on terror. Smuggling constitutes a strategic convergence between the Palestinian terror apparatus in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and global militant Islam. It is a reflection of the strengthening of militant Islam in post-9/11 Egypt and in the post-Saddam Middle East. The border will only become the "border of peace" envisioned twenty-five years ago, if and when the United States realizes many of its broader goals for Egypt and the Arab world—goals that include profound political and economic reforms and the triumph of secular democracy over militant Islam.
Until that happens, there is no alternative to a border regime that rests on forceful deterrence, active interdiction, and swift reprisal. And that means that there is no alternative to Israel's continuing presence at this crucial point on the regional map.
Maj. Gen. Doron Almog served as head of Israel's Southern Command from 2000 to 2003. In these years, the Command succeeded in preventing all attempts by terrorists to breach the security barrier surrounding the Gaza Strip. He prepared this study while a visiting military fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy."
http://www.meforum.org/article/630
http://www.jcpa.org/brief/brief004-12.htm
"It is the reason that Sharon was first elected and the reason his personal popularity continues to be very high - so high that he can form a new party that instantly shoots to the top of the polls."
His popularity is rising because he is now drawing from the left and the middle.
"Does that include the left in Israel?"
I was referring to the left in Israel. They are pretty much the same as the left here.
I don't think PM Sharon is unrealistic in his appreciation of the Palestinian hatred and desire to wipe Israel off the map. Leftists may like his current program but he is not one of them. I think he has opted for what is called defnsible borders, and a two state solution because he felt that the world was heading for forcing a one state solution. He also thought that Pres Bush and this administration would allow him the best shot at achieving the best borders.
Whether he has made a hubrisitic miscalculation remains to be seen.
"Will Israel be left with the right of religious based expulsion? Can she jettison any and all Moslems? If not, I wouldn't be surprised that many decide to stay."
Very few people talk about expulsion. The two adherents of that politically explosive issue are now dead by Arab terrorism - Rehavim Ze'evi who was Tourism Minister at the time, and Rabbi Meir Kahane whose political party was outlawed.
I'm sure Israeli Arabs would opt to stay rather than go to what will certainly be a cesspool of violence, intolerance and poverty. Some Israeli Arabs serve honorably in the army -- Druze.
"The problem with them staying then is how does the new state solution solve anything? My understanding is that Israel's greatest fear is to be outnumbered by Moslems in years to come."
The demographic issue is the one from the territories - West Bank and formerly Gaza - not from Israel proper which can hold its own as a Jewish State. Just jettisoning Gaza with its Jewish population of 8,000, separated 1.3 million Palestinians.
Also recent data shows that the Palestinians greatly exaggerated the demographic issue for their political ends.
http://www.aei.org/events/eventID.990/event_detail.asp
The one state solution would have ensured a Muslim majority and the annihilation of Israel for Jews. There is a push for that by the Arabs, Palestinians, Europe, and leftists here. That is why they define the idea of a Jewish state as racist.
In a way it is the natural progression for Europe which is seeking to destroy the nation state under the EU and thinks that nationalism is a dirty word. Of course that does not mean they are willing to embrace Turkey, understanding the implications of an Islamic country in their club, one who appears to be sliding towards Islamism. But they don't afford Israel the same regard.
Here is an American on the subject of the One State
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/16671
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