Mona Charen: Spielberg’s Moral Confusion. Munich’s problem

NRO ^ | 1/6/2005 | Mona Charen

[Tolik]

Nailed It!
Moral Clarity BUMP !

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[popdonnelly]

The entire American Left thinks it is oh-so-sophisticated in trashing Israel. But it is merely helping people who are Hitlerian. And the Left will never accept the consequences of its actions.

[Mamzelle]

Read this a little earlier--frankly, Charen tiptoes around Spielberg's destructive effrontery. "Well-crafted" indeed--why the schoolmarmishness?Why not some authentic anger? Who is she trying to be "restrained" for? This movie may be the single most dangerous thing to happen to Israel this year (other than losing Sharon) and Mona minces words to make nice?

Goes to show how NRO needs a little more vinegar--but they kicked out Ann for too much vinegar.

Munich as a polemic will not accomplish much against Israel...That Spielberg, so influential, strikes out against Israel will do great harm. Spielberg is providing cultural cover and excuse-making for antisemitism. The world goes mad.

[veronica]

Yet, the DGA nominates him for an award.

At least the movie is tanking at the box office.

[ScaniaBoy]

Thanks for an excellent post!

[Malesherbes]

Spielberg has produced not just a dishonest film; he has produced a vicious film. The ultimate Hollywood limousine liberal, he should spend a little time riding buses in Israel or eating in Israeli pizza parlors where the Palestinian bombers strike innocent people before he strikes his own posture of moral equivalence. Another Freeper on another thread put it best: Spielberg spends his time memorializing the last Holocaust while justifying the next one.

[TET1968]

Mona sure goes on and on just to get her soundbite in:

"Besides, reasonable people understand that there is a moral chasm that separates Israel from the terrorists."

Maybe Spielberg disgrees with you Mona.

I would advise the left to be careful about trashing Steven, if they invalidate him they may invalidate Shindlers List as well.

[claudiustg]

---I would advise the left to be careful about trashing Steven, if they invalidate him they may invalidate Shindlers List as well.---

Only in the mind of a five year old...or anti-Semite.

[marktwain]

Spielberg is a Liberal's Liberal. He did a similar thing in Shindler's List, which was a very well done, excellent film. In actual fact, Shindler bought arms on the black market, and armed his Jews because he feared that they would be executed in the last days of the war.

Spielberg apparently could not bear the idea of Jewish self defense, so he cut that part of reality out of his film.

[claudiustg]

--- In actual fact, Shindler bought arms on the black market, and armed his Jews because he feared that they would be executed in the last days of the war.---

Thanks! I didn't know that.

[cgk]

Mona ping!

Please FReepmail me if you would like to be added to, or removed from, the Mona Charen ping list...

[quesney]

Damn.

[goldstategop]

Such morally confused Jews ended up dead in the Holocaust. Its depressing Jews of Spielberg's stature have no grasp of the danger facing the West at this hour. But that's alright: America and Al Qaeda are both morally despicable. That's the point of Munich: an ode to the mindset of America's 9/10 Left. Kill us, we deserve it. So much for the message of Schindler's List. Survival means nothing if there's nothing worth living for. No wonder the enemies of freedom are emboldened and confident for they can see clearly the West's elites doubt the justice of the West's own cause.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[Huber]

Munchen ping!

[Victoria Delsoul]

Spielberg’s dishonor goes even deeper. It isn’t just that he places wanton killers and avengers on the same moral plane, he also badly distorts the underlying issues and seems to accept the Arab version of reality, that is, that Israel’s founding was somehow illegitimate. “No one would give it to us, so we had to take it” explains Avner’s mother about the land of Israel in a key scene. This is consistent with screenwriter Tony Kushner’s view that establishing a state means “f***ing people over.” That is a lazy and stupid misreading of history. Jews have lived in that land for thousands of years. The land the European Jews settled in the late 19th century was legally purchased and then vastly improved, bringing a swell of Arab immigration to the area. Still, the modern state of Israel would have been a tiny enclave surrounding the entirely Jewish city of Tel Aviv (hard by a Palestinian state) if five Arab armies had not descended upon it in hopes of wiping it off the map in 1948.

Well said, Mona. However, I don't think Spielberg is confused, but has been brainwashed by Liberalism and conditioned to its philosophy of self-destruction. The root cause has little to do with Jews' posited righteousness, but with the more quotidian failing of socialist mentalities.

[Intolerant in NJ]

Today, we must have nothing but shades of gray...even a dumb computer can differentiate between 256 shades of gray - someone as sophisticated and socially progressive as Speilberg seems to think he is should have no trouble telling terrorists who butcher innocents from those who justly seek to hold them responsible for their outrages.....

[Sam Gamgee]

Ugh. Another movie drenched with moral equivalency. Just saw "One Day in September" as was recommended by a poster on FR. I can tell you my view of Germany just took a tailspin into the ground after seeing that movie. The part where the German volunteers on the plane all voted to abandon their mission caused me to yell "p***ies" in front of my wife. What can one expect from goosesteppers anyways.

Happy to see that other historical revisionist movies like Syriana and Kingdom of Heaven failed to break the 50 million dollar mark. Here's hoping this one goes down in flames like those ones.