Thoughts on Munich

I haven't seen the movie yet, so I cannot really review the movie itself.

However, one thing that has occurred to me from reading the reviews of people who dislike this movie for pro-Israel reasons (i.e. because they think that it portrays Israel less than fairly) is that a lot of them seem to be getting what I think is an erroneous impression of why people see the actions of the Israeli government after the Munich attacks as morally ambiguous.

The genreal refrain seems to be that the evil anti-Zionists, or antisemites, or anti-western, etc., people find Israel's actions morally ambiguous is because they killed the people behind the attack instead of forgiving them and because they pursued justice, or because they can't be any better than the terrorists because they kill people too.

However, I was under the impression that the reason why Israel's actions were considered morally ambiguous was because they were assassinating their suspects without a trial. That is, they were not pursuing the people behind the Munich attacks through the proper legal channels (e.g. capturing them and bringing them to Israel for trial as with Adolph Eichmann).

This is not to say that Israel's method of pursuit was necessarily legitimate. But to try to bring people to justice via assassination is an extraordinary measure for any country that values freedom and rule of law. This is not to say that it may not be a justified response, a necessary response, or a moral response. Rather, it is to say that such a situation is morally complex, and that there are defensible arguments both for and against assassination as policy.

Therefore, I see no reason why presenting Israel's response to the Munich assassinations as morally ambiguous or why trying to present both sides is necessarily a bad thing. Noe granted, there may be a pro-Palestinian subtext that is unwarranted, but as I see it, most commentators don't object just to this but to the very idea that anyone would view the Israeli response to Munich with anything other than gung-ho support.

When I have more time, I may give a more detailed analysis, with links.

That is all for now.