Before the first advertisements were playing out before the world, I’d already been tipped off that Spielberg had blown an awesome opportunity with Munich. He had a chance not often seen in Hollywood, a chance to show the world a side of Israel they’re rarely allowed to see: hero.
The head’s up came from a source who knew what he was talking about because he is one of them--one of the Hollywood elites without the elitist attitude.
Robert J. Avrech has been writing for Hollywood for over 25 years, yet he has managed to remain logical, reasonable, and--horrors!--conservative.
He is also an Orthodox Jew, and has a passion for another Jewish story that begs to be told. In spite of being an insider, however, he has yet to get anyone to consider his project on this under-reported yet significant piece of history; one that, had it not happened, would have ended the existence of not just Israel, but the entire world.
Why can’t he get anyone in the inner sanctum to consider it? His words describe it perfectly.
Resa:
I just wanted to let you know that I really like your latest article. Your point about how Israel destroyed the Osiris Nuclear Reactor is quite important and has conveniently been forgotten by the mainstream media.
I've been trying to produce a film about this magnificent raid for years now, but naturally Hollywood has zero interest in such a heroic story.
Why?
1. It is pro Israel.
2. Jews are not victims. Hollywood prefers dead Jews in their movies. If not dead, at least guilty, witness Spielberg's latest liberal atrocity: Munich. I have read the script. It is vile and a complete lie.
3. The raid proved that Saddam was hell bent on genocide. Something no one in Hollywood wants to admit.
No, War Chick, my Hollywood compatriots are busy beating the drums about, oh... so called global warming. I'm ashamed to admit that many of these liberals are Jews. And while the Muslim fanatics are promising to murder every Jew and Christian on the planet, they are having conventions in Las Vegas and heroically calling attention to "melting polar icecaps." And who is their scientific expert? Why none other than our modern Madame Curie, Barbra Streisand.
It's enough to make a grown man cry.
After reading this from a man I respect and admire, I watched carefully for the reactions from others about the movie.
The reviews rolling in backed up Robert’s impression, and left me aching with disappointment. How could the creator of Schindler’s List have authored such an atrocity? It would seem that Spielberg likes getting rich off of Jews, but only dead Jews, as Robert points out.
Apparently, Spielberg doesn’t get it any better than the PLO. He called Munich his “prayer for peace,” but there will never ever ever be peace when only one side wants it. And make no mistake; the Palestinians only want peace under the condition of Israel’s extinction. How much clearer do they need to make it?
Is Spielberg a walking stereotype of a self-hating Jew? Or has he been so thoroughly Politically Castrated that he can’t think straight anymore? I’m betting it’s the second one, because his outrageous effort to put the justifiable hunt for the Black September terrorists on par with the brutal, ruthless, and evil murder of athletes at an event that is supposed to be peaceful and non-political reeks of a man who has completely surrendered his y-chromosome, and with it his common sense.
Wrong again, TIME. Remember when Adolf Hitler was your “Man of the Year?” I DO.
Aljazeera’s take on the film had many quotes from Spielberg including these:
"That the only way to fight terrorism is to de-humanize the terrorists by asking no questions about who they are and where they come from.” (We know where they come from and we know who they are, Steven, and so do you.)
"What I believe is, every act of terrorism requires a strong response, but we must also pay attention to the causes." (What causes would those be, Steven? The fact that Israel exists, or the nerve of their athletes getting in the way of the PLO’s “political statement?”)
And the coup de grace from Public Relations agent Laurie Kaussman:
“The film was nuanced especially from an emotional point of view. You get an idea from where the terrorists are coming from."
OK, so it’s not just Robert and me, right? These people are either high or clinically insane.
Or just plain evil.
We know very well where they’re coming from, Satan.
So let me fill you in, Spielberg and Co: You don’t need to teach us where the terrorists are coming from, what their reasons are, who they are deep down, what they are feeling, and you especially don’t need to try to convince us that they are “misunderstood.” They come from the bowels of Islam, their reasons are evil, selfish, mired in a make-believe history and a made up God, deep down they’re as vile and repugnant as they are on the surface, and they are feeling hate--pure, unadulterated hate.
And Steven, must I state the obvious? Do you really believe that if they got their way tomorrow and wiped all of Israel off the map they would spare you? If you do, I take it back; you’re not high, you’re clinically insane.
The question dying to be asked is this: Would he rather Israel had done nothing for this gross, unprovoked, ultimate wicked attack of innocent athletes? You know, I think he would.
Given Islam’s “peaceful” history, does anyone doubt they wouldn’t have done it again?
Oh wait--they HAVE done it again... and again... and again.
But I’ll tell you this: those particular terrorists that Israel righteously hunted and justifiably killed didn’t do it again. They were stopped. Israel was successful, and we owe them a debt of gratitude. They saved us back then from those particular bastards, just as they would go on to be the only nation with the courage to stop Saddam in his nuclear tracks while the UN did a lot of hand-wringing, letter-writing, sanction-threatening, and well... a lot of nothing.
Israel saved us from a nuclear Iraq, from 10 wretched Palestinians who were stopped from killing again, and yet in the twisted mind of Hollywood, they’re the problem.
How many times has the PLO compensated an “oops!” victim in one of their kill ‘em all strikes? Zero. Yet when Israel accidentally kills one, they do all they can to make amends, as was the case with the Munich aftermath.
Spielberg wasted an opportunity, because Israel was justified in doing what they did, and he blew the beauty of a story well lived.
Did it take its toll on the men who avenged the innocent? YES! That is the price that all warriors pay so the rest of us don’t have to, and make no mistake: they were--and are--at war with an enemy who wanted them and their families dead, an enemy who will attack in the most safe and innocent of places, an enemy who turns civilians into combatants, and an enemy who will never, ever stop. That’s never, Steven, not even after they view that travesty of a film. They may like the way you portrayed them, but they don’t like you, and if they ever have the chance, they will make that crystal clear... or should I say pitch Black?
Golda Meier once said (paraphrase) “We can forgive them for killing us; what we can’t forgive is them turning our sons into killers.” Israel has never fired a weapon to try to wipe Islam from the map, but they have been forced repeatedly to fire weapons to keep Islam from doing so to them, and I’m damned sick of this “get Israel” mentality of Hollywood and the Hitler Press.
Israel has no problem with live and let live; it is Islam that has never heard of such a thing. The problem in this equation isn’t Israel, it isn’t America, it isn’t Christianity, it’s Islam, it’s the Palestinians, it’s Osama, it’s Saddam, it’s Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq. They are the ones who will never ever stop. Perhaps it’s time for a little “if we can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” mentality. Perhaps it’s time to take a page from the lesson book of the PLO and wipe them out. They haven’t responded ever to peace; perhaps it’s time to speak war and death to the murderous bastards.
The Heroes of Operation Opera!
That is why Robert’s project of the most significant moment that never was is ignored. Saddam didn’t get a chance to level his nuclear holocaust, which he most surely would have done, and all because Israel stood tall. The project is ignored because once again, Israel did the right thing. Once again, the world was spared because of a courageous Jew or two.
It is ignored because Spielberg and Hollywood can’t stand a strong Jew, a victorious Jew, a savior Jew.
Thank God they’re not in charge of anything other than make believe.
Keep the faith, Robert... you already have the courage and are clearly destined for VICTORY.