Rosenthal’s original critique of Waltz with Bashir and his subsequent response to Lisa Goldman are, quite frankly, ridiculous. I watched this film a while back with two other friends – all three of us fiercely love and support Israel and consider ourselves center-right on the political spectrum in regards to Israel. We all thought this was an excellent film with a compelling story and amazing, innovative animation. None of us thought there was anything anti-Israel about the film.
It isn’t anti-Israel to depict Israeli soldiers killing civilians and watching porn. The former occurs in the fog of war – unless you’re saying that 18,19-year old Israeli soldiers are superhuman and will never mistake civilians for terrorists or fire at an unknown vehicle out of fear, this seems to me to be a realistic depiction of the fear and confusion that occurs in war, no matter how righteous and necessary that war may be. The same is with the latter – are Israeli soldiers so pure and holy that not a single one would consider jerking off to German porn? Really?
Rosenthal’s critique is the flip side to the sanctimonious double standards against Israel issued out by the left. For them, Israel is not allowed to be a flawed entity, just like all other nations on earth; whatever mistakes Israel makes are magnified to be the greatest crimes in human history. For them, Israel is either perfect, which no nation can be, or it has “lost” the right to exist. Apparently for Rosenthal, depicting Israel with these flaws that make it a normal nation (though certainly better than most in the world)is also a sin.
