What is right and wrong?

Rating: Null/10 (9 May 2006)

It is difficult to separate this film from its message and from its historical context.
This film reminds me that there are no simple answers, no right thing or wrong thing to do and that any response (or non response) will be wrong in some circumstances. This is perhaps more-so in a situation as complex as the middle east.
In one section of the film, Papa says something to the effect that history has been harsh with your tribe, acknowledging the brutal, ignorant and terrible mistreatment of Jews by other nations through the centuries and giving his personal approbation to Avner's actions. But the film reminds us that violence begets violence and as the exchange between Avner and the terrorist (when forced to share a safe house) indicates, both sides eventually end up looking something less than human.
Does this mean that a violent response to the Palestinian murders was wrong.....I am not sure, at least at that time in history. Isacc Azimov once wrote that "Violence is the last resort of the incompetent." Maybe sometimes we are all incompetent and feel we have no choice or no better option. had Israel decided to instead bring the perpetrators before the courts, would other countries have helped? Would they have done any more than mouth platitudes? Probably not, judging by history.
All I can say is that somehow this film captures the dilemma reasonably well without recovering old historical ground (Hitler kills 6 million Jews, and in consequence surviving Jews feel they need a home land. The UN grants Jews part of Palestine and the Palestinians naturally object and fight. Jews win and this sets the scene for a tragedy of global proportions that we are still playing out over 50 years later, and will, no doubt for a long time yet.) Perhaps what the film depicts best is the personal toll that such national strategies take. Yes, after Munich, killing Jews had a high price attached to it but there was also a terrible personal price for those who had to execute the policy.
Outside of the film, I am saddened that Israel has in some ways made itself a pariah (in some quarters anyway) for adopting harsh policies that respond in brutal kind to the Palestinians' own brutalities. I have always felt like the bomb maker in the film - that Jews should set out to be righteous, if not perfect and try to do the right thing. (But Jews also acknowledge that this is only an ideal and joke "We are just the same as every one else - only more-so!") perhaps thats what this film is about too.
So what to make of the film? I have not read all of the comments so do not know if anyone else has the same view as me, but I think of it as a tragedy in the true sense of the word.
Perhaps I can leave with one final comment. I was discussing Israeli policies with a (Jewish) friend, when she pointed out that in Israel we find a nation formed by survivors of the Shoah and which is in many ways still traumatized by it. In these circumstances, who can expect less than harsh responses to the brutal provocations of those who at their most extreme call for Israel to be destroyed and every Jew to be slaughtered. These words were so nearly played out in Europe that it must be hard for Israelis to know how to respond even if they wish peace, as I am sure many do. Sadly now, both sides are dancing to the tune of the extremists.