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SHOULD SCOOTER LIBBY'S LAWYER BE DISBARRED?

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Today's Stories

November 26 / 27, 2005

Alexander Cockburn
How the Democrats Undercut John Murtha

November 25, 2005

David Price
How US Anthropologists Planned "Race-Specific" Weapons Against the Japanese

Brian McKenna
Will Bush Miss the Next Bhopal?

Jeff Halper
Peretz or Bust?

Ray McGovern
Will the US Seize the Opportunity for Troop Withdrawal?

Leigh Saavedra
Thanksgiving at Camp Casey

Ingmar Lee
How Have the Mighty Fallen?

Website of the Day
Saving Cathedral Grove

 

November 24, 2005

James Petras
How to Think About War and Peace

Bob Shirley
Thanksgiving Torture: What the Puritans Fled

Mike Fox
Torture Survivors Speak for Themselves

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Adrift? Perhaps. A Draft? Never!

Greg Moses
Thanksgiving Delayed: TX High Court Blesses Inequality

Alexander Cockburn
Turkeys in the Larger Scheme of Things

 

November 23, 2005

Ramzy Baroud
The Great Gaza Border Deal: What Does It Mean?

Mike Whitney
Bush, Padilla and Thomas More

Stan Cox
Red, White and Blue Dawn: What a Bad Hollywood Film Can Teach Americans About Life Under Occupation

Linda S. Heard
Targeting Al Jazeera

November 22, 2005

Kevin Gray / Mike Hersh
Maxine Waters, the Real Leader of the Anti-War Caucus

Ralph Nader
What Do Dems Stand For?

Michael Donnelly
The "Vetting" of Bernard Kerik

Mike Ferner
The CIA's "Torture Taxi" in the Spotlight

Pierre Tristam
The Justice Deficit

Marshall Auerback
Bush's "Compassionate Conservativism": Neither Compassionate Nor Conservative

Website of the Day
I Don't Like Geldof

 

November 21, 2005

Mike Marqusee
Clinton's Hypocrisies on Iraq

Josh Frank
Democratic Hawks: the Avian Flu of the Antiwar Movement

Mike Whitney
Hugo Chavez vs. the King of Vacations

Norman Solomon
Getting Out of Iraq

Russ Baker
Woodward's Weakness

Robert Jensen
A National Day of Atonement

Paul Craig Roberts
Lies and Official Secrets

 

November 19 / 20, 2005

Fred Gardner
The Raid on MendoHealing

Rep. Cynthia McKinney
The House GOP Has Done a Heinous Thing: Stop Playing Politics; Get the Troops Out Now

Ron Jacobs
A Pathetic Congress: If It Walks and Talks Like a Withdrawal Resolution, Why Won't You Vote For It?

David Vest
The Politics of Surrender: It's as American as Robert E. Lee

J.L. Chestnut, Jr.
Condi Rice's Disdain for the Civil Rights Movement

John R. Bomar
Staying the Course on "Freedom's Frontier": a Vietnam Vet on Iraq

John Ross
The Dragon Flies High, But Not Over Mexico

Phillip Cryan
Colombia: "Political Kidnapping" and Murder in Cauca

Dave Lindorff
RIP In These Times

Dick J. Reavis
The Future of the Daily Press

Jeremy Scahill
Vegetarian Between Meals: This War Can't Be Stopped by a Loyal Opposition

Dan Wright
Cleaning Up Alaska's Scan Bay

John Stanton
Scowcroft Talks Turkey; Edmounds Fights Fascism

St. Clair / Vest / Walker
Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week

Phyllis Pollack
The Stones: Rarities

Dr. Susan Block
Our Night of Weimar Love

Poets Basement
Albert, Engel, Ford, Harley and Louise

 

November 18, 2005

Michael Neumann
The Palestinians and the Party Line

Dave Lindorff
Murtha and the L Word

Michael Donnelly
Black November 15

Mark Chmiel / Andrew Wimmer
Uncrucify Them

Don Monkerud
A Decent Workplace

Tom Kerr
Grant Clemency to Tookie Williams

Trish Schuh
Faking the Case Against Syria

 

November 17, 2005

John Walsh
A Fractured Anti-War Movement

Rep. John Murtha
Iraq Must Be Freed from the US Occupation

Brian J. Foley
We Are All In GITMO Now

CounterPunch News Service
Guardian Apologizes to Chomsky; Publishes Total Retraction of Brockes' Slurs

Dave Lindorff
In Post-Saddam Iraq, There are No Civilians

Mark T. Harris
Coming Out in an Up-and-Coming Sport

Cockburn / St. Clair
From Reporter to Courtier: the Decline of Bob Woodward

 

November 16, 2005

John F. Sugg
Al-Arian Speaks: In His First Interview Since the Trial Began, Al-Arian Talks About What the Jury Didn't Hear

Noam Chomsky
Putting Out the Englightenment

Dave Lindorff
Shake and Bake: Pentagon Admits Using Phosphorous Bombs on Fallujah

Evelyn Pringle
Laurie Mylroie's War

Sam Husseini
Trying to Look a Female Suicide Bomber in the Eye

Pierre Tristam
Toturers' Theater

Greg Bates
Waffling Alito Charms DiFi

Farrah Hassen
Moustapha AkkadDavid Lean of the Middle East Killed in Amman Blast

Bill Christison
Evidence Mounts That Bush Wants New Wars

Website of the Day
Violent Oscillations

 

November 15, 2005

Todd Chretien
My Evening in the No Spin Zone; Or Why Bill O'Reilly Hates San Francisco

Leah Caldwell
Death of the Jailhouse Press

Frederick Hudson
Rosa's Wreath: Miss Parks and Robert Williams

Harry Browne
Bush-Linked Judge Bows Out: Another Mistrial in Irish Ploughshares Case

Jason Leopold
Secret CIA Testimony: Iraq Posed No Threat

Ingmar Lee
Logging Lackies vs. Canada's Most Endangered Species

Diana Barahona
Showdown on the Silver Coast

Tom Andre
New Orleans, Two Months Later

Website of the Weekend
Ernest Crichlow: 1914-2005

 

November 14, 2005

Diana Johnstone
The Origins of the Guardian's Attack on Chomsky

Paul Craig Roberts
Power Over All: Unlimited Detentions and the End of Habeas Corpus

Conn Hallinan
Provoking Syria: Cambodia All Over Again?

Joshua Frank
Off She Goes: Hillary in Israel

Christopher Reed
The Persistence of Racism in Koizumi's Japan

 

November 11 / 13, 2005

Alexander Cockburn
First the Lying, Then the Pardons

Gwyneth Leech
Cross Connections: a Painter Reimagines the Passion of Christ in the Wake of Abu Ghraib

Elmas Mallo
Chillin' in the Blazin' Texas Sun: Inside the Texas Prison System

Michael Neumann
The Rebel King of Bluegrass: Jimmy Martin, an Appreciation

Saul Landau
Leakgate: the Screenplay

Sam Husseini
Bush and Zarqawi Bomb Because We Let Them

Brian Cloughley
Sleaze, Deceit and Torture

Ron Jacobs
Rep. McGovern's Withdrawal Resolution: a Step in the Right Direction?

Lila Rajiva
Dover Bitch: the Curses of Pat Robertson

Michael Donnelly
Hypocrisy Watch

Joe Allen
Murder in El Salvador: Who Killed Gilberto Soto?

Roland Sheppard
Lessons from the Montgomery Bus Boycott

Justin E.H. Smith
Another Monkey Trial?

Ben Tripp
The Cost of War

St. Clair / Vest
Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week

Poets' Basement
Jones, Louise, Ford, Smith, Albert and Engel

Website of the Weekend
Iraq Vets and Against the War Need Your Help!

 

 

November 10, 2005

Peterside, Ogon, Watts and Zalik
Delta Blues Again: Ken Saro-Wiwa, 10 Years Gone

Pat Williams
Will Alito Cost the Republicans the Senate?

Steve Higgs
Bush Crony Targets Indiana's Forests: 400% Hike in Logging

Jimmy Massey
Is Ron Harris Telling the Truth?

Lucson Pierre-Charles
Haiti: Insanity Takes Over

Anthony Newkirk
Syria in the Crosshairs

Lawrence R. Velvel
Why Did Libby Lie?

Website of the Day
Imperial Margarine

November 9, 2005

Gary Leupp
The Niger Deception / Plame Affair: an Incomplete Chronology

Tariq Ali
Blair Defeated on Terror Laws

Chris Floyd
The Philosopher's Stone

Elaine Cassel
The Shocking Trial of an American Citizen: the Case of Ahmed Abu Ali

Joshua Frank
Sen. Max Baucus's NASCAR Pay Day

Alison Weir
Memo to Jon Stewart: Glad You're Against Torture, So Why'd You Give Israel a Pass?

Diana Johnstone
Rage in the Banlieue


November 8, 2005

Paul Craig Roberts
Still No Jobs

Roger Burbach
Bush v. Chavez: the Imperial President Meets the Bolivarian Democrat

Ron Jacobs
An Interview with Behzad Yaghmaian on the Paris Uprising

Ralph Nader
"The Worst Marketed Disease on the Planet"

Jim McGrath
Voter Beware: a Cautionary Tale for Election Day

David Bloom
McCain, Israel and Torture: Setting the Record Straight

Stan Goff
Jimmy Massey, Ron Harris, and Ambush Journalism

 

November 7, 2005

Dick Reavis
The Origins of Mr. Danger

Jason Leopold
Cheney and the Cover Up: the Vice President Lied

Dave Lindorff
What Country was Bush Talking About?

Eli Stephens
A Tale of Two Generals: the Lies of Colin Powell

David Swanson
The Bush-Cheney Ethics Refresher Course: a Syllabus

M. Junaid Alam
An Interview Stan Goff

Matt Reichel
Paris Uprising: a Rebellion in Real Time

Naima Bouteldja
Paris is Burning

Jeff Halper
Israel as an Extension of American Empire

Website of the Day
Dispatches from Paris

 

November 5 / 6, 2005

Alexander Cockburn
Storm Over Brockes' Fakery: Guardian Fabricates Chomsky Quotes

Lawrence R. Velvel
Lying, Law Schools and Executive Power: What Senators Should Ask Alito

Diana Johnstone
Srebrenica: a Response to Certain Criticisms of My Essay

Roosa / Nevins
The Mass Killlings in Indonesia, 40 Years Later

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Missing the Bus: When Conscience Bows to Calculation

John Ross
The Zapatistas' Otra Campaign for Mexico's Presidential Elections

Mike Whitney
Globalizing Sadism: the United States of Torture

Mark Engler
Will Big Business Turn On Bush?: the Economic Nightmare Unfolds

Juliano Mer-Khamis
They Shoot at Children, Too

Ron Jacobs
When Gen. Westmoreland Visited

Jill S. Farrell
Bird Flu and the Posse Comitatus Act

Missy Comley Beattie
Trent Lott's Untroubled Sleep

Mitchel Cohen
People of the Dome, Revisited

Evelyn J. Pringle
Bush-Cheney and Big Oil's Big Summer

Reza Fiyouzat
Signs of Life or Last Gasp? Structural Problems in the Democratic Party

Charles Sullivan
When Courage Fails: a White Southerner on Rosa Parks

Zachary Richard
Return to Louisiana

Ben Tripp
Beginning of the End? Don't Start Cheering Just Yet

St. Clair / Vest
Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week

 

November 4, 2005

Jeffrey St. Clair
Blood on the Tundra, Betrayal in the Rotunda: Losing ANWR

Dave Lindorff
A Majority Now Favors Impeachment: If He Lied, He Must Be Tried

Phillip Cryan
Crackdown in Colombia

Christopher Brauchli
Katrina and Tax Breaks for the Very Rich

William S. Lind
Exit Strategy: You Can't Stay the Course in a Lost War

Daryl G. Kimball
Of Madmen and Nukes

George Beres
Laurels for Negroponte?

Peter Montague
Why We Can't Prevent Cancer

 

November 3, 2005

James Petras
The Libby Affair and the Internal War

Saul Landau
Torn Families and Shot Down Planes: a Cuba Story

Rep. Cynthia McKinney
An Occurrence at Gretna Bridge

Michael Dickinson
Bang! Bang! You're Deaf! Sonic Weapons Over Palestine

Joshua Frank
Sham Behind Closed Doors

Remi Kanazi
Dancing with Perseverance

Reza Fiyouzat
Taxation or Racketeering?

Website of the Day
CIA Leak Investigation: Bigger Fish, Deeper Water?

 

November 2, 2005

Cockburn / St. Clair
Holy Alito!: Not as Crazy as Scalia, But Just as Bad

Robert Oscar Lopez
Saving Rosa Parks from American Hypocrisy

John Walsh
The Philosophy of Mendacity: From Leo Strauss to Scooter Libby

Brian J. Foley
Why Most Americans Don't Care About Gitmo (and Why They Should)

Ramzy Baroud
Rolling Back Syria

M. Junaid Alam
What Moral Values?

Todd Chretien
Judgment Day for the Governator

Bruce K. Gagnon
The Democrats' Slap Happy Day

Website of the Day
Hands Off Dave!

 

November 1, 2005

Ron Jacobs
An Interview with Kent State's Dave Airhart

Gary Leupp
The Plame Affair Leads to Rome

John Ross
Days of the Dead on the Border

Bill Quigley
Why Are They Making New Orleans a Ghost Town?

Joseph Nevins
From a Boundary of Death to One of Life

Dave Lindorff
Thinking About Impeachment

Linda S. Heard
Bashing Syria: Another Trojan Horse from the UN?

Heather Gray
Thank You, Mrs. Parks

Michael Dickinson
To Di For: Charlie and Camilla Cross the Pond

Jeffrey St. Clair
Kent State: Wise Up and Back Off

 

October 31, 2005

Elaine Cassel
Libby's Lies

Mark Weisbrot
Pop Goes the Bubble: Bernancke and the Fed

Mike Whitney
Carry On, Patrick Fitzgerald

Norman Solomon
After the Libby Indictment, the Press Acquits Itself

Farooq Sulehria
Trading Weapons While Kashmir Burns

Nicole Colson
Scapegoating Immigrants

Madis Senner
Dhafir Sentenced to 22 Years: Another Erosion of Civil Rights

Paul Craig Roberts
Scooter and the Neocons


October 29 / 30, 2005

Cockburn / St. Clair
The Libby Indictment: Gotterdammerung for the Bushies?

Peter Linebaugh
The Wedges of Hephaestus

Tim Wise
Framing the Poor: Katrina, Conservative Myth-Making and the Media

John Chuckman
Bushspeak: Dark and Garbled Words

Steven Higgs
Green Hoosiers: Forging a New Democracy in the Heartland

Brian Cloughley
The Fifth Afghan War

M. Shahid Alam
Israel and the Consequences of Uniqueness

Nikki Robinson
Crack Down at Kent State

Ralph Nader
Let the PIRGs Begin!: Student Activism Thrives

Joe DeRaymond
Requiem for Bethlehem Steel?

Joshua Frank
Karl's Great Escape: Did Rove Rat on Scooter?

Laura Santina
Tongue-Tied on Iraq: Why Aren't the Dems Screaming Bloody Murder?

Fred Gardner
Death of an Organizer

Michael Dickinson
Insult Your Country

Ron Jacobs
Autumn in America

Dr. Susan Block
Fear and Sex: a Halloween Greeting

Vanessa S. Jones
Self-Portrait, 1994. Bronte Beach

Jeffrey St. Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week

Poets' Basement
Marbet, Gardner, Ford, Albert, Engel, Krieger & St. Clair

Website of the Weekend
Red State Update

 

October 28, 2005

Jared Bernstein
Inflation Up; Wages Down: Fastest Decline in Wages on Record

Virginia Tilley
Embracing the Anti-Aparthied Movement in Israel/Palestine

Phil Gasper
The Race to Execute Tookie Williams

Jennifer Matsui
It's Mardi Graft Time!

Manual Garcia, Jr.
Is the US Really Against Torture?

Monica Benderman
In the Name of Justice

Jason Leopold
Fitzgerald Focuses on the Forgeries

Dave Lindorff
Suddenly, Bush Endorses Right of Fair Trials


Otober 27, 2005

Saul Landau
The Scandal Isn't the Leak, But the Illegal War

Stuart Hodkinson
Bono and Geldoff: "We Saved Africa" Oh No, They Didn't!

Ingmar Lee
Stop the Troops!: No Glory or Honor in Iraq

Lila Rajiva
License to Bill: Gates Does India

Ilan Pappe
The Last Moment of Hope

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Waiting for Fitzgerald

Michael Donnelly
Look Who's Talking Now: the GOP on Perjury

Ron Jacobs
Escape the Weight of Your Corporate Logo

Cockburn / St. Clair
White House in Meltdown

 

October 26, 2005

Kathy Kelly
For Whom They Toll

Gary Leupp
Dialectics of the Plame Affair

Mike Marqusee
Empire of Denial

Eric Ruder
War Crimes in Afghanistan

Patrick Cockburn
Iraq: a Constitutionally Divided Nation

Joshua Frank
Fitzgerald v. the Bushies: Hold Your Elation in Check

J.L. Chestnut, Jr.
The Legacy of Rosa Parks

Website of the Day
Decent Work in America: the 2005 Work Environment Index

 

 

October 25, 2005

Paul Craig Roberts
Condi and Syrian Regime Change: Could Somebody Recommend a President?

Ken Sengupta / Patrick Cockburn
Attack on the Palestine Hotel

Conn Hallinan
Sleight of Hand: Iran, India and the US

Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
Pulling the Court Strings

Jackie Corr
Barbara Bush: Poster Gorgon of the Houston Astros

Robert Day
Talk to Strangers

John Sugg
Judith Miller and Me

 

October 24, 2005

Dave Lindorff
Revoke Judy Miller's Pulitzer

Michael Donnelly
Shades of Iran/contra

Patrick Cockburn
A Nation Stands on Trial

Mike Whitney
Apres Rove

Norman Solomon
Iraq is Not Vietnam, But...

Bill and Kathleen Christison
US Foreign Policy and Palestine

 

October 22 / 23, 2005

Alexander Cockburn
When Divas Collide: Maureen Dowd v. Judy Miller

Billy Sothern
Letter from the Circle Bar, New Orleans

Saul Landau
Bush, an Assessment

Ralph Nader
An Open Letter to Bush on Harriet Miers

Behrooz Ghamari
Whose Justice Does Saddam's Trial Serve?

Brian Cloughley
Bush the Strategist: Pyrrhus Without a Victory?

Diana Barahona
Venezuela's National Workers' Union

Fred Gardner
Dershowitzed!

Lee Sustar
What the War on Terror is Really About

Patrick Cockburn
Murder of Saddam Trial Defense Lawyer

Laura Carlsen
Mexico City Seamstresses Recall 1985 Quake

James Petras
China Bashing and the Loss of US Competitiveness

Joshua Frank
Invading Iran: Who is to Stop Them?

Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Disasters are Us

Michelle Bollinger
When Abortion Was Illegal

Missy Comley Beattie
CSI: Iraq

Kona Lowell
Intelligent Design: Making High School Fun

Ben Tripp
Tanks for the Memories

Jeffrey St. Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening To This Week

Poets' Basement
Albert and Engel

Website of the Day
Indictment Watch

 

October 21, 2005

Dave Lindorff
The Democrats' Abortion Hypocrisy

Winslow T. Wheeler
Paying for Their Mistakes: Incompetence, Deception and the Defense Budget

Col. Dan Smith
The Destruction of the National Guard

Norman Solomon
Media at Crossroads: 25 Years After Reagan's Triumph

Madis Senner
Abusing Katrina

Michael Donnelly
Richard Pombo: DeLay in Cowboy Boots


October 20, 2005

Dave Lindorff
Impeachment Comes to NYC

Ray McGovern
16 Fatal Words: Cheney's Chickens Come Home to Roost

Jeremy Brecher /
Brendan Smith

Attack Syria? Invade Iran?: By What Constitutional Right?

Patrick Cockburn
Saddam Refuses to Recognize Court

Kevin Zeese
Was the Iraqi Constitution Vote Fixed?

Ross Eisenbrey
Millions Would Lose Pay and Protections Under Enzi Amendment

Randy Shields
James McMurtry Makes It in Dayton

Justine Davidson
Prosecuting Bush in Canada for Torture: a Small Victory

After Lucas Cranach
Judy and Holofernes

Joe Allen
The Scandalous History of the Red Cross

 

 

Subscribe Online

Weekend Edition
November 26 / 27, 2005

A Review of "Paradise Now"

In Search of Paradise

By WILL YOUMANS

The average movie going experience these days goes something like this. Plop down ten dollars for a ticket, another ten for popcorn and a drink, then sit through two hours of things blowing up, juvenile humor, or cheap sentimentality. You escape your job, family, and so-called social life by staring at screens depicting star-studded mindlessness. Then head back to your car to re-join the rat race.

How often do you ponder anything presented in a movie? Did "Saw II" or "The Legend of Zorro" force you to think about the challenging issues of the day?

A rare gem of a film is one that forces the wheels in your brain to inch forward by presenting compelling characters in interesting moral dilemmas. They make choices you are forced to consider. As people, they are uniquely human as complex as we are. Most of what we see coming out of Hollywood features super-human mega-stars playing stale cardboard cutouts in highly formulaic ways. They have as much to do with us as do the lives of the celebrities playing them.

Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad's new release, 'Paradise Now,' is exactly the kind of movie worth seeing. It forces any viewer to grapple with it, and is far from predictable.

It is not simple; it is not cut-and-dry. It takes place in one of the most complex pieces of real estate in the world, occupied Palestine. Like the political context, the story bounces between the absurd and the deadly. Israel steals Palestinian land to build a wall around the Palestinians. It calls it a "security fence." It is neither a fence, nor about security. The wall, which is mostly concrete, has as its main purpose the oppression and control of people.

Similarly, Israel claims its military occupation is out of the need for defense. In the same logic of pre-emptive war, offense is defense. Like Orwell wrote, war is peace, as well. And freedom is slavery.

Approached by a militant group, the two protagonists, Said (Kais Nashef) and Khaled (Ali Suliman), gladly accept the invitation to detonate themselves and others in Tel Aviv. Friends since childhood, they mix their rationales between the religious and the secular. On one hand, they think they might get to heaven, though Khaled expresses doubt. They naively ask a militant activist what happens when one dies. On the other, they want to be remembered as heroes, martyrs for the cause of freedom. Politically, they reason, they have no equality in life. This gives them equality in death and the freedom to choose their own fate, rather than letting Israel choose it for them.

The decision is not taken up with consistent enthusiasm. At first, Said is hesitant, and Khaled persists. After their effort to sneak into Israel proper is botched, a series of events leads to a reversal in their views. Central to this plot twist is the role of the militant organization itself. Run more like a modern corporation, they are presented advanced designs of their own martyr posters. Even the recording of their suicide videos is business as usual. Their recruiter munches on a Laban sandwich as the guy with the video camera fumbles to get the recorder working after several takes. Beyond arranging the logistics, they ultimately have little to do with the choices Said and Khaled make. Though initially they refer to fate after they are asked, it becomes about free will. They have their own reasons for their decisions.

On the surface, the film is about one of the most controversial elements of the Israel-Palestinian conflict. However, if you think that is really what it is about, you are not getting deep enough. Without giving away too much about the film, it is quite easy to say that the most important themes are the same ones behind every great story.

Abu-Assad confessed that he borrowed these themes from millennia of literature, including Shakespeare plays and ancient mythology. Stylistically, he also adapted the trademarks of the Western cowboy genre: the liberal use of close-ups, slow pacing, and wide shots of terrain. As the plot moved towards the climax, he depended more on the tools of the action thriller. The shots shortened in length and quickened in pace. The camera itself became more energized.

To escape the lure of the overuse of music to manipulate the audience's emotions, Abu-Assad had no music in the soundtrack. There was no pouring of Celine Dion's whining or fast paced techno music to bolster the action. Because the plot, character development and camera work kept me involved, I did not even notice the lack of music. It needed none at all.

I found 'Paradise Now' so artistic that overemphasizing the politics of the film sucks the creative life out of it. Politics is only part of the film's equation.

That is strange for me to say since most of the time I tend to dissect Hollywood's products for their political assumptions and ramifications. I need to in order to stay interested. Mainstream movies are important to understand because they resonate with the public. They reflect the public's views or actually inform them. Pop culture can be a barometer of society in large. 'Paradise Now' has been critiqued for failing to directly show the most brutal aspects of the occupation. While it depicts checkpoints and Israel's military presence, its more violent aspects are mostly left out or referred to in dialogue. However, this criticism is actually the film's strength. If it sought to convince the public that Israel mistreats the Palestinians, it would fail to be a good, nuanced story and likely not be convincing. It would be bound and dogged by an overt agenda. Since it takes the obvious fact of Israel's oppression for granted, as the film's background, it is even more powerful.

Average viewers will have to accept the sub-text in order to get the story. That is worth a hundred documentaries.

Will Youmans has a blog: www.kabobfest.com

 

 

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