crackmassage I already knew the bare outlines of Israeli politics and modern Israel's history from reading news magazines over years and from history class-- but this goes quite a bit into detail of several crucial events with archival footage of the various house bombings, assassinations, bus suicide bombings, and street riots superimposed over the words of the leaders of Shin Bet itself-- getting all their own words in actual interviews is an incredible accomplishment if you think about it. There have only been six leaders of this Israeli national security force in Modern Israel's history. All six spoke candidly to interviewers here. While at first I thought the film was starting to get very detailed and even long winded, this misgiving vanished as more unfolds and footage is shown of families being raided in the night-- arrests made, bomb victim human beings-- the movie zeroes in on its focus and holds it laser-beam tight. By the last half hour I found the focus of the documentary powerful, artfully and factually describing as skilled editing of images is seen and interviews heard I can't think of a more powerful documentary I've seen, really. The head of Shin Bet is something like the head of the US's CIA and FBI rolled into one-- and clearly they are very powerful commanders who make life and death decisions which effect people directly. - the movie subtly examines both the morality and the effectiveness of both tactical and strategic strikes on the opposition to Israel's government and statehood--zeroing in on internal Israeli and West Bank events rather than anti-Israel sentiment in the larger Arab world. The film is brilliantly directed.

teetamalangi A very brutally honest documentary about the conflict in Palestine. Ex-chiefs of Israeli intelligence, Shin Bet, come out openly about their operations in the occupied Palestinian territories. Interestingly, these top Israeli security officials openly accept the reality of how Israel has been brutally occupying the Palestinian people for decades. Moreover, they talk about their decisions which led to the killings of numerous innocent people. They talk about how Israel dropped a one-ton bomb in the middle of crowded housing area, which resulted in many innocent deaths and 14 children under the age of 15 were burnt alive.Lastly, these officials also accept that the responsibility of not having peace in the region lies on extremist elements within the Israeli state that do not want any peaceful settlement of the conflict.All in all, it is amazing to see that these top security officials come out in open and talk about all the things in such honest manner.In the end, they wish that a settlement to the conflict is reached and Palestinians are given their due rights--but they remain cynical. One of the former heads of Shin Bet says in the end "Israel acts like German occupation forces acted during World War 2. It is heartbreaking to see, but it is the reality"

peter henderson According to Wikipedia, "The Gatekeepers", director, Dror Moreh, wanted to understand how Israel's Shin Bet security agency worked. He contacted a former head of the Shin Bet (a "Gatekeeper,)" Ami Ayalon, who had since been elected to the Knesset for the Labor Party. Ayalon agreed to participate, and helped Moreh contact the other surviving former heads of the Shin BetMy Response to The Gatekeepers #1: Blame the politicians - not the spiesAvraham Shalom, one of the Gatekeepers after the 1967 war believed, like many, that the conquered territories would be returned to their former occupants. He says, "The problem is that the security agency executives are so busy conducting the activities of their organisations that they only get to think about these things when they are on holidays, or when they retire" (my paraphrase). The problems is that " There was no strategy, just tactics…As soon as we stopped dealing with the Palestinian state and started dealing with terrorism,… we forgot about the Palestinian issue"My Response to The Gatekeepers #2: Politicians pander to the prevailing popular opinion - in other words - what they think the people will vote for. Blame the people, not the politiciansI have a feeling that if Israelis took the words of their prophets more seriously they would have a nicer country to live in. Take the words of Jeremiah, for example…"If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly,  if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow… then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever.  But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless." (chapter 7:5-8)"All six former heads of Shin Bet argue – to varying degrees – that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land is bad for the state of Israel." Carmi Gillon, head of Shin Bet from 1994 to 1996, suggests that the deceptive words of the extremists led to a serious attempt to blow up the Muslim Dome of the Rock mosque, which stands on the site of the old Temple of Solomon. Shin Bet operatives were able to interrupt it.He suggests that such an act would have united Muslims around the world, from Arabia to Indonesia, to take up arms against Israelis, and lay siege to Zion. Such an occurrence is referred to in Israel's prophetic scriptures as "the Great Tribulation".It takes a bit of background to get an understanding of what that involves.The biblical prophets sought to explain the destruction of Israel by the Assyrian and Babylonian empires as part of an atoning process that would remake the people of Israel in a way that was acceptable to Jahweh. It is likened to the way in which precious metals are refined by having the ore (dross, impurities) burnt off. The process is described in Deuteronomy chapters 28 to 30. That theme is taken up by the prophet Jeremiah in chapters 29 to 31, in which the supposedly new covenant he discusses seems to be identical with the one Jahweh negotiated with MosesBoth the Moses and Jeremiah covenants involve people adopting a righteous mindset - or to use the rather more poetic language employed in the bible - having the words of the Law "written upon their hearts". It is the same righteous mindset that Jahweh ascribed to Abraham in Genesis 26:5, "because Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions." What the expression, "the Law written upon their hearts" actually means was summarised by Hillel as "the ethic of reciprocity", or "Golden Rule": "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn." (this is another quote from Wikipedia - go and read) The Israeli prophets are obsessed with the idea that this atonement, this refinement ,will take place in three stages. 1 the Great Tribulation of Israel 2 the Day of the Lord 3 the prosperity of the Messianic reign in Zion of David's sonThe Day of the Lord occurs when God intervenes in human history, delivering Jerusalem from the armies of the nations that have besieged it (the great tribulation), then places a descendant of King David on the throne in Jerusalem.The Roman expulsions of Jews from Israel (70 and 138 CE) occurred after Jewish extremists decided to speed up that process by getting involved in revolutionary politics. The book and film of Chaim Potok's, "The Chosen" depict this idea when the fictional, orthodox Rebbe Saunders launches into a tirade against the efforts of post World War II Zionists to re-create a state of Israel. I would paraphrase it as, "Hitler killed Jewish bodies - these Zionists will kill the Jewish soul", but you would probably be better advised to read the book or see the film.It seems that the extremists want to do it all again, but this time against the Muslims rather than the Romans. Carmi Gillon notes that these sentiments culminated in the assassination of prime minister Rabin, and emasculated the efforts of Israeli officials at peace talks from Oslo to the present day. All the Gatekeepers agree such talks must be continued in a serious manner.Spielberg's film, "Munich" highlighted the problem of Israeli born Jews leaving Israel.Maybe its time they stayed home and discovered for themselves what it means to have Moses' Law written upon their hearts. Not what some medieval commentator says. Not what some critical text analysis says. But what it means "not to do what is hateful to your fellow.". Then maybe they should get themselves elected.

Hot 888 Mama . . . than it is probably a useful exercise to watch this Oscar-nominated feature documentary which stitches together the philosophy of six Israeli Dick Cheneys who ran that Middle Eastern country's intelligence service from about 1980 to 2011. These guys control a warehouse of files that puts the one at the end of INDIANA JONES AND THE RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK to shame. Apparently, there is a paper file on every resident of both Israel and the Occupied Territories. Further, the bank of video screens is more extensive than the Federation used to monitor the entire Universe, as each block of the Holy Land is under continuous high-resolution satellite surveillance. Finally, the self-proclaimed "Jewish State" apparently is the main testing ground for the United States military's "Hellfire" weaponized aerial drone program, in which video gamers blow up Palestinian pedestrians, vehicles, homes, and businesses right and left. All of this could be coming to an America near you soon, so get ready!