If this happened in America...
We'd still be talking about it and we'd never get over it.
What you've got here is a documentary on the Nova Music Festival, you know, in the Israeli desert on October 7th, where people were killed, raped and taken hostage.
Now the truth is war is not like in the movies. There's no soundtrack. There's no arc. No buildup to a crescendo. The sun is out, the light is bright, and WHAT THE F*CK IS HAPPENING!
The rockets are in the air... And no one is concerned. First and foremost, many attendees are high. This is Israel, the land of the Iron Dome. You're safe, right?
Wrong.
Now we've been taught that not only is the United States the greatest country on the planet, but those in the rest of the world are the other. Maybe we'll let some people from England and Ireland pass, after all they speak the same language. But what is astounding, what you'll notice right away, is these people are just like you and me.
Assuming you're in your twenties.
This is before commitment, obligation. Before the big job. Before marriage and kids. When you'll drive all night to a location you just learned about to party until the sun rises, and even thereafter.
They've got tattoos, stringy hair. And they radiate intelligence and awareness and togetherness. This is not class warfare, this is kumbaya.
And then...
Not only are revolutions now televised, but so is war. Everybody's got a smartphone camera, documenting their life.
We remember the seven o'clock news footage of Vietnam. Canned for our consumption. There was a filter between what was going on over there and what we learned over here. As a matter of fact, stories would leak out and no one would believe them, because the U.S. was the almighty, we didn't lose wars, we had the money and the power, and it was just a matter of time before we conquered.
Only we didn't.
Turns out weapons are no match against hearts and minds.
So what happens is twenty three years ago the Twin Towers fall down, 2,753 people died, along with 184 at the Pentagon and 40 in Pennsylvania and...
In retaliation we invaded Iraq. Which held no responsibility for the terror attack.
But someone had to pay!
So if you watch this movie, and most people won't, because it's launching on 9/24 on Paramount+, a streaming outlet so crummy that the parent company was sold at a near fire sale price (but it is on BBC2 on 9/26), and we'll pay for Netflix, and Amazon Video is baked into Prime, but beyond that everything is expendable, and Paramount+ is way down the list of desirability.
And most people don't want to see this stuff.
First and foremost they hate the blood. There's a warning at the beginning of the film, but what ensued was not what I thought would be shown. You've got people literally running for their life, you've got people being shot... Once again, it's not orchestrated like a Hollywood movie. It's just hours and hours of...
Being on your own.
The IDF was caught flat-footed, no one knew what was going on. The attendees were calling law enforcement, and if they could even get through, the people they spoke to didn't believe them, certainly were not amped up about it.
So first and foremost you'll be confronted with the security lapse. The vaunted Israeli military... Failed. Someone was responsible.
And then there's Hamas.
When you see them cut the fence and storm through with their rifles, out for blood... I can't imagine anybody watching this and siding with them, unless you're a member of Hamas yourself.
This is what the Israelis are up against.
But somehow the script has been flipped. Israel is seen as the aggressor.
Not that I'm going to change your mind if you believe otherwise. This is a nation where Tucker Carlson proffers a Holocaust denier who lauds Adolf Hitler and denigrates Winston Churchill. And even the right wing "Wall Street Journal" has excoriated Carlson for this, but now he's got a Top Ten podcast and a chip on his shoulder after being sidelined by Murdoch so good luck getting him to change his ways.
And then there's Fox itself.
I recommend you read the article "How Fox News sane-washes Trump" in today's "Washington Post." Here's a bite:
"The quotes cited feel very Earth-2 to anyone not steeped in the right-wing ecosphere — 'big win,' 'best closing,' 'this race just got tighter.'"
Free link: wapo.st/4dm6pOV
My inbox is filled with stuff like this. Pointing to the number of views of Trump's debate closing on YouTube... That's one of the talking points, along with railing against ABC and the moderators, which makes no sense if Trump truly did clean the floor with Harris.
But my point here is in a world where there are multiple news sources, and people only consume what they agree with, one cannot change people's views on the war in Gaza. Impossible. I haven't been able to do it.
Then again, how important is it to most people?
Of course it's about antisemitism, because you don't see equivalent protests about the deaths in Syria and Sudan, but if you're a member of the group attacked...
Just like Black people tell their kids to beware of "driving while Black," we Jews are brought up being reminded by our parents about antisemitism.
Of course it's worse for the Blacks, because they're easily identifiable. But any minority ultimately comes up for abuse. It can be as simple as living in a northern city as opposed to the rural south, or even living in California. Not that I want to make all these equal, I just want to illustrate that if you believe you're immune, you're dreaming.
Or as Martin Niemöller so famously put it:
"First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."
So most people won't be incentivized to watch "We Will Dance Again." You've got to have Paramount+, and if you're not an EDM fan, or a Jew, why take the time?
Used to be different. In the three network era. If it made it on to TV, millions of people saw it. That's something we lost with cable and the internet.
But once you see Hamas in the movie... Your opinion might change. You still might talk about innocent Palestinians, but this is what the Israelis are up against. Not only did Hamas attack out of the blue without provocation, they employ a vitriol and complete lack of feeling for humanity that thank god we do not see in the U.S. But if you watch this movie, you do see it. Which is why people should.
I could give you my position on the Gaza conflict...
Hell, I'll tell you that I've got no time for Netanyahu and the settlements, but when terrorists are challenging your right to exist, what are you supposed to do?
From the river to the sea baby, they want Israel annihilated.
But you might not agree.
But that's the modern world, you've got your news and you assume mine is as narrow and biased as yours, therefore my opinion is dismissible. There is no truth, never mind agreement.
But these images don't lie.
We can't even convince Trump voters to investigate his behavior, what odds do we have that the views of the pro-Palestinian faction can be changed?
I will tell you that BDS was founded by the Palestinians, it took root on college campuses and the kids eating up their info are the same as the social media influencers on the payroll of Tenet Media, funded by the Russians. Better to be angry and take a side, and double-down, as opposed to try and survey the landscape and see what is really going on.
Am I going to defend everything Israel does?
Absolutely not. They were undercutting the Supreme Court before this all happened. And the religious right that has pushed the settlements and the rightward policies of the government...thank god their children now have to go into the army. What's fair is fair.
You've got talking heads in this movie say they'll never forget it. This day, what they saw. And you hear this all the time, but...
When Hamas is throwing hand grenade after hand grenade into your shelter, when you wake up and find out you're covered in dead bodies, no wonder people have survivor's guilt, no wonder some of the survivors have committed suicide in the ensuing year.
As for one of the hostages from the Nova festival, at the end of the film it's said that Hersh Goldberg-Polin was taken captive, his fate unknown, but now we know he's dead. Shot in a tunnel 65 feet below ground by Hamas.
This is what the Israelis are up against. This is what Hamas has been doing with all the money sent to aid the citizens of Gaza. This is the uncomfortable truth the pro-Palestinian people refuse to acknowledge.
But those damn Jews.
Loud-mouthed and entitled. Who do they think they are?
They're just like you. They want to live in peace and prosper. But this lifestyle was threatened. What do you want them to do?
I don't know if you can eradicate Hamas. I don't know if you can get rid of the tunnels. I don't know if you can get rid of hatred of Israel in Gaza. It's thorny.
But this war is not one-sided.
Let me ask you again, what would you do if you were attacked, if your loved ones died? What is enough for you to put down your arms, to stop fighting? You're never going to forget your fiancé. Are you ready to swallow your pain, put down your arms, get over it?
That's what I'm asking you.
And when you watch this movie you might ask yourself this question too.
But in an age where there's a firehose of media, it's hard to get people's attention for anything. Herd mentality rules. The American cowboy, the rugged individualism this nation was built upon, has been sacrificed for groupthink.
You're entitled to your own opinion.
But get back to me after you watch this movie.
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