J Street Recommends...

The Gatekeepers and I took its advice and watched it at a local J Street Seattle showing and discussion last weekend.

I thought that the movie shot itself in the foot -- it was more Hollywood than C-Span. That was very unfortunate. The movie got caught up in issues of morality and cinema-graphic honesty (I think the movie was dishonest to show re-enactments of past historical events and ineffective to boot.)

The big takeaway from the movie is that five (or six) experienced, top Israeli security officials — all of whom are Israeli patriots of the highest order, all past directors of Shin Bet  — are saying that Israeli governmental policy is misguided and not going down the right path. Current policies are not working. Forget about any other issue; forget about morality, the Jewish way etc etc — whatever. Past top Israeli security officials say it is not working.

And that was the huge lesson I took away --- five Israeli patriots, who understand the facts better than almost anyone, are saying that Israel needs to change policies.

No American Jew who watches that can dismiss J Street and Peace Now opinions as anti-Israel propoganda. One can still disagree with the officials in the movie but the issue of criticism of Israeli policy as anti-Israel has to be dismissed.

Too bad the movie got diverted into Hollywood re-eneactments and kvetching about "morality."

I urge the movie-makers to re-edit the film to make it more C-Span and less Hollywood.