Israel’s Oscar Bid Discomforts Netanyahu Government

[Purveyor]

By REUTERS
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM

An Oscar-nominated Israeli documentary has brought little joy to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, the focus of the film’s criticism of Israel’s policy toward the Palestinians.

Featuring searingly confessional interviews with six former chiefs of the shadowy security service Shin Bet, “The Gatekeepers” portrays the 46-year-old West Bank occupation and Jewish ultra-nationalism as threats to Israel’s survival.

Its run for Sunday’s Academy Awards comes at an awkward time for the conservative Netanyahu. He narrowly won an election last month that favored centrist rivals who, echoing world powers, demand he revive long-stalled Palestinian statehood talks.

Usually quick to congratulate Israelis who succeed abroad, Netanyahu has kept mum on “The Gatekeepers,” which an aide said he had not seen. Reaction from other officials has been frosty.

MORE...

http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2013/02/22/267647.html

[russspeakeasy]

1. Gee, I only hope I'll be able to sleep tonight.

[Mosby]

2. cute how they slipped in "occupied"

I wonder what reuters thinks about this change to their report.

Original:
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE91K0I120130221?irpc=932

[Purveyor]

3. Indeed. ;)

[oberliner]

4. Especially since the report was filed from West Jerusalem

So the implication is that this particular source (unlike Reuters) considers all of Jerusalem to be occupied.

Fascinating that.

[Mosby]

5. Indeed. nt

[Violet_Crumble]

8. Did you manage to get any further into the article than that?

I think the film looks like one well worth watching, wouldn't you agree?

[Purveyor]

9. I'm sure they have already reserved the 'boxed seats' for the viewing, indeed. ;) eom

[Violet_Crumble]

10. LOL.

[Jefferson23]

6. On que:

“What was presented there was presented in a really one-sided manner, and therefore the film is slanted,”.....

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

7. From the article.

A third interviewee, Ami Ayalon, who once ran for the leadership of the center-left Labor party, tells director Dror Moreh that Israelis suffer a strategic shortsightedness that could imperil their survival as a democracy.

“We win every battle,” Ayalon says, “but lose the war.”

Moreh told Reuters this month that U.S. President Barack Obama should intervene in the conflict in his second term, comparing Palestinians and Israelis to kindergarten children.

“They need a grown-up to tell them, ‘Enough! Israel, Palestine, this is what you need to do, do it.’”

It would take a lot for the Obama Administration to coerce change on both sides of the I/P issue. I'm not sure PBO wants to really go there.