Avner hunted Black September operatives involved in the 1972 slaughter of eleven Israeli Olympians. He began his mission as a believer, convinced that he was securing his people and bringing their enemies to justice.Now, Avner is confused, conflicted. For every Terrorist secretly killed, Islamic retaliation eliminated an embassy, a team, a close friend. He lives in fear of being hunted, realizing that this fear, as a new shadow, will cleave to him until death.
Avner stands in an empty New York City field. His Mossad handler requests that the young man return to Israel, a metaphor, of course, for calling him back to his original disposition towards hunting the killers of innocent Jewish people. Avner’s conscience cries out, “What have I accomplished? For every man I have killed, another has taken his place. Where will it end?”
“I cut off my fingernails,” retorts the callous elder, “even though they will grow back.” The agent departs, refusing to break bread with the exile. The audience watches the “abandoned Jew” a moment longer, long enough to ask, “Who is right?” Should cold-blooded murderers be hunted and destroyed before they can kill again, or is this the road to endless bloodshed and mutual hatred?
Steven Spielberg, who wove this story of the Israeli pursuit of Black September for his 2005 film, Munich, will force his answer on the audience. The Director had addressed the audience in an unusual, taped “Personal Message” rolled before the feature played in theaters. Spielberg presented himself as the mature, impartial poser of a question. “My movie is not intended to be a statement about the actions of Israel. I merely ask if countries intend the consequences of policies they feel compelled to adopt.”
For all his apparent impartial objectivity, Spielberg pronounces a fatal sentence against Israel in the final seconds of his film. His camera abandons the remorseful, haunted Jewish executioner in his empty field and pans the New York skyline until it rests on…of course, our Towers, the next escalation in the war Israel started by having the stone-age reaction of self-preservation.
“Violence” begets only violence, anguish, personal and social destruction.” It is trite. It is contrived. It is cruel. Spielberg offers no solution, only a moment of silly Hollywood propaganda.
Munich was irresponsible and transparent. It fueled the anti-War left and afforded viewers an opportunity to revel in their own moral superiority. Why, only the enlightened elite can witness, in a plush seat with Dolby sound, the butchery of Israeli youth and remain true to the cause of real pacifism!
On January 15, Spielberg announced his intention to produce a documentary for the Discovery Chanel on the reconstruction of the new World Trade Center Towers, including a special commemoration of those who were killed there in 2001.
While the new Tower rises, Spielberg will be reconstructing our national understanding of what actually occurred on September 11.
We can be certain the Islamic Terrorists will be but a negligible chorus. The stars will be President Bush, stumbling about in all his culpable splendor. We will descend into Machiavellian puppetry with a leering Cheney and watch Madam the National Security Advisor against a backdrop of spider-webs.
From the comfort of the cutting room and the clear skies of Los Angeles, Mr. Spielberg will sanitize the inhuman vaporizing of three thousand friends and family members and, in keeping with the final message of Munich, make sure we leave convinced that we deserved the attacks because of the part America plays in the endless cycle of terror.
Posts
