Monday, September 2, 2013

The Gatekeepers

documentary

Six former leaders of Shin Bet are interviewed on camera for their thoughts on the last fifty years of Israeli history and the role they played.

These aging men came across to me as moral cripples...so intent on fighting with individual trees (often with subtle smirks when recalling a 'win') they cannot see the forest. Not one questioned the morality of taking others' land by force and then brutally suppressing them to maintain control of that land. It was like listening to an American military leader in 1880.

They all talked of 'terrorists' as if they and their state were above that categorization, even though the indiscriminate killing they did was far worse.

The film left me profoundly discouraged. It certainly obliterates the notion that an oppressed people gain in moral stature...once the tables are turned they are just as able to rationalize truly evil behavior.

5

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