Watching the IDF (catch all)

[parvati]

ganulv,

This guy seems like an amazing artist. Will be exploring his music for the next few days. Ill let you know :-)

[bourbon]

This guy seems like an amazing artist. Will be exploring his music for the next few days. Ill let you know :-)

Matisyahu is great. I'm not as into his newer stuff, but his first "Live from Stubb's" was awesome.

[TV-PressPass]

I really want this film to have a wider release. My room-mate spotted the trailer a few months ago when I was reading A High Price, for US customers: http://www.amazon.com/High-Price-Tri.../dp/0195391829and immediately turned me onto it.

If it delivers on half of what the trailer promises: I'll be buying it for sure.

[davidbfpo]

The gatekeepers is being shown in Birmingham (UK) next week for three days, a rare showing I expect beyond London:http://www.macarts.co.uk/event/the-gatekeepers--15

I will add a review next week.

[ganulv]

The gatekeepers is being shown in Birmingham (UK) next week for three days, a rare showing I expect beyond London:http://www.macarts.co.uk/event/the-gatekeepers--15

I will add a review next week.

I’ll be anxious to see what you think! It can be difficult to keep up with some of the names and incidents. I did get the sense that the director made an effort to not bore a domestic audience who knew all the names with foreign audiences getting an introduction.

[TV-PressPass]

Ah damn!

This came to my home town, I went and saw it, and I never posted a review here!

I found it immensely interesting. I appreciated that the interviewer was willing to ask tough questions, and definitely put some of the subjects on the spot. It's always tempting to slide past poor choices or failures, but that didn't happen here.

I found the 3D animation pretty enough, but largely unnecessary. There were a few times where "recreated footage" could have been slightly mis-represented as original source footage. It was vague to the viewer, which I'm not a fan of.

Most valuable of all: my girlfriend, who has only the vaguest idea of the middle east and its organizations, was able to watch, follow, and thoroughly enjoy the film.

For her: the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin was a surprise twist.

Overall, its something that I would buy and re-watch. Definitely.

[davidbfpo]

The Gatekeepers is superb, well worth watching and it is amazing that six Shin Bet (internal security agency) directors agreed to be interviewed on film. Several times being pressed gently, notably over two PLO prisoners being murdered a long time ago.

Yes the reconstruction(s) of incidents, like the murder, are hard to quickly distinguish from actual footage - some of which is grim, notably of blown-up buses in 'The Second Intifda'. The use of overhead imagery, slides, file cards, maps etc is well done, although could be disconcerting - are you watching real images.

Fascinating remarks on the post-1967 Six Day War situation, with 1m Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank to monitor. Conduct a census and obtain a 'richer picture', supplemented by informants and arrests etc.

The morality of Shin Bet, if not Israeli actions is a constant theme. One director starkly stated "There is no morality dealing with terrorism".

The unexpected murder of Prime Minister Rabin by a Jewish extremist was a great institutional shock; the then director resigned and IIRC was replaced by an outsider, a senior naval officer. I'd forgotten the bombing campaign by Jewish extremists; those convicted effectively being released quickly after public and political pressure.

HUMINT was the key factor at the start, but after the Oslo Agreement gave the Palestinians Gaza and much of the West Bank Shin Bet became far more desk-bound watching screens.

At the end several directors admitted Israel was in a far more insecure position, one agreed it was fulfilling a "worst case" prediction as an "occupation state".