Three Films About the Middle East

The first film is called Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West. It is of interest for one main reason: a DVD containing the film was sent to 28 million households in America in the last month leading up to the 2008 election. The primary sponsor of what is estimated to be a $50 million marketing campaign is completely separate from the pro-Israeli organization that has the same address and three of the same original founders.[1]

The film is almost pure propoganda, shot very nicely, but including interviews with so-called experts, none of whom you’ve ever heard of and none of whom hail from organizations you’ve ever heard of, despite their official-sounding names. It begins with the following disclaimer:

“This is a film about radical Islamic terror. A dangerous ideology, fueled by religious hatred. It’s important to remember most Muslims are peaceful and do not support terror. This is not a film about them. This is a film about a radical worldview, and the threat it poses to us all, Muslim and non-Muslim alike.”

Having gotten that out of the way, it proceeds to portray every Muslim as a terrorist for the next hour. If you’re gullible enough, you’ll be shitting your pants in terror; if you’re skeptical, you’ll be occasionally gut-laughing and shaking your head in amazement at their audacious lies. As with all such films, though, there is a kernel of truth—that there exist flat-out, batshit-insane terrorists bent on the destruction of everything non-Islam. They naturally depict the eradication of such people as paramount, exaggerate their danger and conclude that the only possible solution is a military one. How surprising.

For a look at many of the same events but with a good deal more nuance and historical context, you should definitely check out The Power of Nightmares by BBC (Internet Archive), which clocks in at about 3 hours of total viewing. Once you start, you won’t want to stop, as this documentary is incredibly engrossing and includes interviews with a virtual rogue’s gallery of twentieth century U.S. administrators of one stripe or another.

Instead of building hysteria on a house of cards, as Obsession does, the Power of Nightmares builds a hypothesis slowly and mortars it with facts and ample documentation. It is much more a historical film and well worth viewing for anyone wondering how radical Islam got to where it is today (pretty much nowhere), where the neoconservatives got to (also pretty much nowhere, all in all) and where the American military machine figured into all of it, from a myriad of angles. Truly fascinating stuff and well worth an attentive viewing.

In light of the recent Israeli incursion into the lands of Palestine—tanks started rolling into Gaza several hours ago—Occupation 101 (YouTube)[2] provides an extremely well-told and factual depiction of both the history and the current situation in Israel and the Occupied Territories. The version given above is broken into 11 parts; parts 3 and 8 are particularly interesting historically and parts 10 and 11 offer a good overview of the current situation.[3] It clocks in at about 90 minutes and is also well worth a viewing. Americans, in particular, should approach with an open mind and see past the veil of deception offered by the mainstream media in the U.S.[4]

This film is particularly pro-Palestinian, but there is no way to be pro-Israeli without ignoring a tremendous amount of information. Almost no Israelis are as pro-Israel as most Americans seem to be, which indicates less a hard-heartedness on the part of the average American than a stunning lack of education about the conflict. The interviewees wish that Hamas would not attack, calling their tactics stupid, but it is difficult to control everyone, especially when most people there are simply fighting for their very lives every day. Palestinians have the moral high ground and should not kill Israelis; on the other hand, silent suffering has only earned them more suffering thus far. When Ghandi led India to independence with non-violence, the British—and the world—seemed much more guilt-ridden and subject to diplomatic pressure of that kind. In the case of Palestine, one has the feeling that, were they to stop resisting, they would simply be wiped without a trace from the face of the Earth.

Watch the film and see what you think. As a professor at a Palestinian university put it: “Americans have a hard time grasping the reality of the situation in Gaza because it is completely outside of their frame of reference.” See what you can do to amend that situation.