From the Times of Israel, via Der Spiegel:
The Palestinian terrorists who killed 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics were assisted by a German neo-Nazi, a German newsmagazine reported Sunday. The neo-Nazi, Willi Pohl, helped forge passports and ferried one of the Black September terror cell ringleaders around Germany in the weeks before the Olympic massacre.
Based on recently released files from Germany’s security service BfV, der Spiegel reported Sunday that Pohl had met with Saad Walli, an “Arab-looking man” who boasted of his contacts to the radical wing of the Palestine Liberation Organization, seven weeks before the massacre in September 1972. Saad Walli was the code name of Abu Daoud, one of the masterminds behind the attack.
The 2,000-page report, which the police of the city of Dortmund sent to the BfV and other national authorities, does not mention any efforts made by any of the contacted officials to apprehend Abu Daoud in the weeks prior to the massacre, the weekly reported.
In October 1972 Phol was arrested by the police and was found in possession of grenades, arms and ammunition. The weapons were thought to be held in keeping for Black September to be used in a retaliatory attack against German targets. He was sentenced to two years in prison.
Pohl, who today makes a living writing crime novels and has “credibly distanced himself from terrorism,” according to Der Spiegel, helped Abu Daoud in several ways. He helped him forge passports and other documents and drove him “across the country, where he met with Palestinians in several cities,” the magazine quotes Pohl as saying.
I wonder what Steven Spielberg — auteur, with Tony Kushner, of the unconsciously (on Spielberg’s part anyway) anti-Israeli film Munich — must be thinking now that links with the Holocaust have been drawn. As one who has been known to write crime novels myself, the mystery for me is why Spielberg, after Schindler’s List, would make such a film, as if the Israeli vengeance were in any way morally equivalent to the horrendous racist mass murder. I think the answer is Kushner. I doubt Steven, not really a news maven, had any idea of the extent of the playwright’s anti-Zionist animus.
Now that the links between Neo-Nazis and Palestinian terrorists are made manifest, will the director have the courage to disavow his own film? If he really wants to do something for Israel, he should.
Cross-posted at PJ Lifestyle.
Guest colmn?
BTW, Ron Silver’s birth date coming up; miss him still…
Note that Spielberg may really only be paying lip-service to “wanting to do something for Israel.” He is, after all, actively and aggressively supporting Obama – e.g., in developing the Obama Bain attacks against Romney.
If he really wants to help Israel and yet is helping Obama, the man is very conflicted, ignorant, and/or irrational.
I suspect that his treatment of, and association with the Holocaust, like that of many other “jews”, is to provide some “jewish” content in lives otherwise totally devoid of any genuine Jewish tradition, practice, or concerns.
Yes, he strikes me as a Jew that eats Lobster and pork chops and finds any disagreement with Obama as anti Semitic.
What a louse.
“Now that the links between Neo-Nazis and Palestinian terrorists are made manifest, will the director have the courage to disavow his own film?”
I would guess the odds are slim to none. Speilberg disposed of any desire he had to take action against fascists by making the confused and confusing “Saving Private Ryan”. The idea of taking effective action against modern fascists (such as the government of Iran) in the real word must be incomprehensible to him.
Such a disappointment after the great “Schindler’s List”.
Not sure that Spielberg should disavow what is an excellent movie … if you can get past its political subtext.
And actually, I am also unsure that “political subtext” is the correct expression. The flaw in “Munich”, in my immodest opinion, is psychological: it is the impossibly high moral standards to which the Israeli hit squad hold themselves, but not the Palestinians.
Excuse me for stereotyping, but I wonder whether this sense of collective guilt is part of Jewish culture. It certainly is something that I cannot relate to.
Some earlier thoughts on this are in my IMDb review:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0408306/reviews-615
I’ve often thought that Spielberg has a secret admiration for Speer’s designs for the Nuremberg rallies and a fascination with Nazi imagery in general. But he just ain’t as good as the originals.
But that is beside the point here. I doubt that he will be bothered by the neo-nazi connection to the Munich massacre, or that he will even learn about it. It is also the sort of thing that is easy to rationalize, i.e., desperation breeds strange bed fellows, that sort of thing.
Back in the ’80s I saw a the earlier film version of the book Munich is also based on, called Sword of Gideon with Micheal York. I thought it was an unusually good film that brought up some intense emotion, particularly towards the end.
In fundamental story-telling terms, I thought Sword of Gideon a superior film, though made on a smaller budget. However I think Munich is also an outstanding film and I’ve never detected an anti-Israeli bias when watching it. Munich is a fictionalized narrative and both films deal with the idea of men who after all have the souls of men who get drawn into something they realize brutalizes them and perhaps their fundamental morals. I see that theme as a rather universal one and not a particular knock on Israel despite the specific subject matter.
Revenge is not a hard thing to understand nor is the concept that people on the other side like children, good food and a good job. The issue then becomes what is it that radicalizes perfectly sane people and makes them hate. Why is there war? I wish I had the answer.
For example, Egyptians are about as nice as any people you’ll meet in the world but in their furthest political extension believe in some pretty crazy stuff and stick their noses where it doesn’t really belong. Why? Well, it must be taught to them and enabled in an insular culture where back talk is neither present nor wanted. What’s the solution? I honestly don’t know but it often, too often, comes to war and death and once it comes down to that, you just pick a side because words are right out the window.
And so the men in Munich have picked a side and they know it’s the right side but they perhaps wish there were just a few more words to resort to.
I think this will remain under Spielberg’s radar unless some evil conservative reporter ambushes him with questions about it. /sarc
Sword of Gideon was a much better film, with Steven Bauer, as Eric Bana’s character also based on Jonas Vengeance, it showed the misgivings of the operatives, but the fact it had to be done, It’s more like Silva’s Gabriel
Allon series,
Pohl, who today makes a living writing crime novels and has “credibly distanced himself from terrorism,”
Like Bill Ayers?
Our ‘justice system’ is too damned lax. Pohl and Ayers should both still be locked up.
Yes – I’m not a forgiving SOB.
The new age Jews who control the American Film and Television industry are atheists, and have radical far left objectives and goals. I have several times urged Steven Spielberg to put his money where his mouth is. The Hollywood Jew have a distinctive indifference towards Israel.
I wish people would stop saying “neo-Nazi.” The prefix doesn’t add anything, and “Nazi” would be perfectly accurate.
steven spielberg and tony kushner are beautiful together:
morbosi pariter, gemelli utrique,
uno in lecticulo eruditui ambo . . .
one’s as sick as the othet, twin diseases
in their little bed, with their little minds . . .
the name box should read catullus