Saw the movie Munich for the second time and my opinion has completely changed. First of all I must say that when I saw Munich the first time it was after I had seen Syriana. Now Syriana was a fucking incredible movie Robert Baer is a fucking bad ass. Syriana didn’t lie to me, it wasn’t sentimental it was to the point: Terrorism is exacerbated and allowed to happen because it is always mishandled by the west(whether maliciously or not is a question for another time). So seeing Munich so close after and actually being a little prejudiced knowing that this was spielberg making this. Well the move starts off real real fast, with the black september group sneaking on to the olympic grounds and being helped over the fence by olympians who can imagine nothing but benevolence from other humans in this placid world that is about to be shattered. The hostage takers are beating and pushing the scantily clad jews down who are piled together and clamoring to rise to the surface, holocaust symbolism anyone? So upon my first viewing I tuned out a little for the rest, because I figured this was another “everyone hates islamo-fascists” cog d conditioning for the war weary populace.
Well upon my second viewing this movie really came alive for me. If you don’t know the plot here it is: Black september takes a bunch of Israeli olympic athletes hostage in Munich. Their intention is to somehow further the goal of the creation of Palestine, how exactly this achieves that goal is up for debate, but that IS their intention. So the siege goes on for awhile, they demand to go to an airport, so they give them transportation to the airport. And then the german police fucked up the rescue REEEEEEAAAAAALLLL bad and ALLLLLLLLLLL the hostages died. So germans and jews have no animosity towards eachother at all, and this didn't exacerbate that animosity lol.
So Golda meir herself gives her blessing for MOSSAD hit squads. This is where the movie picks up on its theme. Meir talks about how we can’t afford to be civilized when fighting against such barbarism. So the group goes on killing targets that MOssad has told them are involved. Almost killing children, wounding innocents, and even bunking with PLO. These Mossad hit squads realize that they are terrorists, and now THEY are being hunted as well.
Well the ironic thing about these hit squads is that none of the people killed had anything to do with black september. The targets are given to these individuals in order to further the goals of the mossad. To kill certain leaders in the PLO. The point is, they don’t know who they’re killing. Once in awhile someone will point this out what if they’re just doing internal mossad house cleaning? what if they’re just killing random PLO? It is through this Socratic dialogue that one member of the hit squad exclaims the assumption that they have all believed wholeheartedly in order to undertake such a task, but when said aloud only seems to illustrate the destructiveness and immorality of their actions: “The only blood that matters to me is jewish blood.”
During the portion of the movie in which they bunk with 3 PLO members(the hit squad pretends to be different revolutionary organizations red army, basque, and african national congress). While under this guise they are able to talk with the PLO members peacefully. Ali the individual who speaks with the main character(team leader avner), tells a story about his romanticized vision of the past in which his father owned land in Palestine. He says how having a homeland is everything and that it may take 100 years but as long as we keep having children the war will continue. Avner is dismissive of such a notion to kill and die for so long for a piece of dirt. When he returns home after the hits though he speaks with his mother letting her know that he is suffering from a crisis of conscience because of what he has done. Her response: “we have a homeland, thats what its all about”.
The last part I wanted to talk about was the character Salame. Who is regarded as a leader among the PLO. When Avner tries to pay his underworld contact for info to find Salame, his contact lets him know that Salame is CIA. Avner’s first question: “did the cia know about munich then?”
Munich may have been about Israel and Palestine, but it shares almost every aspect with the United states and al-qaeda. We have become worse than our enemy trying to fight our enemy, only 2 words need be uttered to prove such an assertion: Abu Ghraib.
The most important thing about war is intelligence. We must know our enemy and what the FUCK do we know now???
I”ll tell you what we know, we know that if you read something that wasn’t published by the federal government you’re a conspiracy theorist. I know that if you want your country to abide by the geneva conventions a treaty signed to prevent naziesque atrocities you are a traitor. I know that the vast majority of the United States public will continue to be manipulated by fear.
The movie though which has been criticized as either pro-israeli or pro-palestinian, was beautifully balanced. The look on the face of the Black September members as they basically had to shoot the hostages, because they had threatened they would if the police fucked with them. It is the same face the mossad hit squad wears before they pull the trigger on their first victim. Spielberg is a jew and thus can avoid the label of “anti-semite” which is oft applied with great frivolity. Thusly this movie has a very balanced message and that message is: Terrorism is the same thing as counter-terrorism. War is war is murder is terrorism is counterterrorism is war. This movie just made it so apparent. Avner signs a contract saying he doesn’t work for the mossad and then works for the mossad. The mossad sends him targets without evidence using avner as a hitman. They continue to use him chewing him up, before they finally spit him out. The leaders of the mossad and Israel using their footsoldiers and manipulating them with ideology. Sound similar to jihadi barracks in pakistan? Get a foot soldier tell them their targets are for the good of something and then use them until they are used up. Spit ‘em out and tell ‘em they’re a hero even though they don’t have shit to show for it but a soiled conscience.There has been a vast change in the United States political structure since 911 we are STILL AT WAR. Our mainstream artists have for the most part not addressed this grim reality. Syriana and Munich address this. Munich especially without fear expresses itself, because spielberg is such a powerhouse he could push the envelope. Unfortunately not many others have followed suit.
I want to see more movies that point out the fact that the US is royally fucking up in its response to terrorism. As well as the fact that there is something fishy going on, there are vast overlaps between the intelligence community and what is known as “al-qaeda”.
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