Thoughts on Munich

My wife and I watched Munich last night. I had seen it once before, years ago. Now it is even more relevant than before. Why? Because my wife and I have been living in Israel for the last three years. We are moving back to the States. But we met and married in Israel. And as American-Israeli Jews we have a new perspective on the conflict.

I am not going to comment on the known or assumed political leanings of the people behind the movie, and the book on which it is based. Nor am I going to make any sweeping accusations against one side or the other.

There is one scene in the movie that, for me, really epitomizes the debate over the Israeli-Palestininan conflict. The scene is a quiet dialogue between Avner the Mossad assassin and Ali, a PLO agent. After mistakenly sharing the same safe house, Ali and his team believe that the Israelis are members of the PLO supporting ETA, Basque Separatists.

To me the scene illustrates the filmmakers’ takes on the absurdity of the conflict; the tit for tat violence that seems to have no end. However I feel that the scene may have been missed opportunity. Of course lesser filmmakers may have thrown in a “we’re so alike” scene. That would have been false here. But what would have happened if the filmmakers wrote a scene that defended one side’s actions as right and the other side as wrong?

I am not so sure. After living in Israel I have my own view of the conflict, which I will not share here. As a filmmaker I believe it is not the job of a filmmaker to preach. However that shouldn’t stop brave filmmakers from questioning the established narrative. From asking audiences to think for themselves. Does this scene ask the audience to think? In my opinion, yes, without a doubt. But not for the reasons I would have chosen.

I found Ali’s responses to Avner’s two main points evasive. When Avner says that the Palestinians, “can’t take back a country you never had.” Ali responds with an obscenity. Ali does not answer the question but instead replies with new threats of violence. When Avner says to Ali that “there are lots of places for Arabs [to go].” Ali responds with an attack, “You are a Jew sympathizer.”

For me, here was a chance for the filmmakers to address two main points of the conflict. The origin of Palestinians, and the inability of neighboring Arab countries to absorb the refugees. What direction could the filmmakers have gone? One way or the other, but I wish they would have chosen one.

What do you think?