Valēre

Over winter loafing, one of my favorite activities was going to the movies. I saw 7 Pounds, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and Valkyrie, all of which broke my heart to pieces in their different ways.

However, Valkyrie struck me in a very different way than the other aforementioned movies because: 1) I love history and it interesting to learn how civilization changes and remains the same, and 2) it is a movie about a momentous historical and sociological moment in time (1944), as the US (and consequently the rest of the world) enters into a moment of similar magnitude, although far more positive in nature.

It was an effulgent film. And, for me, I do not know if it was the acting or costumes or the dialogue that made it great. And maybe it was. Possibly because I am already an avid student of history, an emotional, empathetic, pacifist who still can't believe the Holocaust happened (that such evil exists is nightmarish), and because I cannot easily separate fantasy from reality and am easily convinced that I, too, am in the film, the movie carried me away.

First of all, can you imagine living in a place where the government could round you up and murder you with no questions asked and no one to stop them? And this government is highly efficient and organized, soulless, convincing, charming, and considered as omniscient as God Himself.

I shall not recount the movie here because it is far to exquisite for my lame synopsis, but it made me think quite interesting things about Israel, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, government, politics, and God.

For one, the Operation Valkyrie (Unternehmen Walküre), for which the movie is named was a plan of action approved by Adolf Hitler to restore law and order in Germany in the event of his death. These plans, if followed correctly, would restore Adolf Hitler's government within 6 hours.

Dead or alive, Hitler was going to get all of the Jews he could.

For the duration of the movie, with the nauseating stench or murder and evil slapping me around in my head, I understood why Israel came to be created. Not only were the Jews being systematically exterminated, the world (Allied Forces) did not intervene for quite some time. Adolf Hitler and his regime managed to kill six million Jews before it was all over and further defer the dream of world peace so as to push it farther into the depths of rottinghood.

I will say it, cautiously but honestly: I do not support Israel. I do not think it should have been created but especially not in the manner that it was.

But if you know the history of Israel's creation, it does leave a strange taste in one's mouth. Anyone with a soul appreciates the atrocities of the Holocaust (and the atrocity that was the Holocaust) and the shocking lethargy of the rest of the world to act but, it provokes a question. Of all the atrocities that have occured since men discovered weapons, what makes the Holocaust so much more atrocious so as to create a brand new country?

And why did not anyone think to sit down and meet with Palestinian leaders and have a discourse to reach compromise if they wanted this state so badly?

And who the hell is Great Britain to assure support of a Jewish state? Should they not have encouraged them to consult their potential neighbors?

I have no question for the United States as it sort of proved to be a lackadaisical in its foreign policy.

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict makes me think that government is feckless and its efficacy is a function of chance. While children of both sides die in the streets everyday, governments all around the world, in over 50 years, have yet to make peace between the two sides. Maybe they should let all the Palestinian mothers and the Israeli mothers meet and share the stories of their dead children, who died for reasons they were not born yet to contribute to, not old enough to understand, and died before they could have possibly contributed to steps toward peace.

This "new generation" of minds who may end this conflict is slowly diminishing everyday, with their graves outnumbering their toys.