We Will Dance Again
Film review 10/3/24
What a film. What a morning, that
one, Oct. 7, 2023. What cell phone clips show is joy, happy smiles, loving
folks dancing, oh, that Nova Music Festival, 3,500 young Israelis dropping
drugs, ecstasy and acid, and in full party mode for the sunrise. It was going
to be a super day! Until
At 6:29 am, Festival folks saw lots
of rockets coming from nearby Gaza. For Israelis near that border, it’s a
common occurrence. How handy that there are small buildings along the roads
near Gaza that are used for shelter when Gaza launches rockets. One problem ~
3,500 folks are high as kites as the drugs kick in for the sunrise as they are
rocking to great music, but no shelter for that size crowd. Nope. They’re in an
open area, mostly open farmland and an orchard, some trees. Rockets, rockets,
rockets, hmm. Even folks who live nearby don’t see that many, this is unusual.
Oh, yes it is.
I come from a side view. Being
American, white, now elder, from no religion ~ my mother wanted NO religion in
our house, we did thank God before we ate, but that was it as I grew. We could
go with friends and/or neighbors to their churches, but I grew free from any
religious indoctrination.
Now it gets weird. As a young woman
in the world on my own, while living in Detroit, I met and dated a Jewish guy,
but he could not take me to meet his parents, me being a shiksha (wrong
spelling, a Yiddish word for a woman who is not Jewish). A few years later, now
Chicago, another great guy to date, kinda Jewish, he couldn’t care less about
it. Problem - - his mom would FREAK if I wasn’t Jewish, so, no problem, I
became Karen Cohen. That got complicated, especially when my brother arrived
for a short visit, we all went to the best Jewish deli/restaurant up near
Evanston, all was going well, until as we waited to pay, up on a counter was a
BIG hunk of something, some part of it was gone, my brother asked what it was, Halvah,
and he said, “Oh, is that like Christmas candy?” Gulp. I gave this relationship
some serious consideration, loved the guy, and I decided to take a series of
classes on becoming a Jew. I went, I learned, and realized that Jews aren’t
really happy about someone converting in. Sooooo different than any Christian
‘convert’ deal! And why, you ask, were Jews not happy about my effort to take
those classes? Maybe this is BS, but what I was told is that converts probably
have more knowledge about Jewish history than they do. Hmm. And guess what? For
me, then, knowing next to nothing about anything Jewish, Zionism was like a
steadfast companion to anything Jewish. They seemed linked in ways I couldn’t
grasp. But that word, Zionist, made folks smile. It must be a good thing, maybe
it’s like our 4th of July Patriot thing? Whatever. I decided not to
join, seemed like I was about to enter a closed door, and Karen Cohen
evaporated.
Years later, many years later, I
came to meet a warm woman who is large of spirit, easy to like, and she was
glad to educate me and others about Palestinian concerns. OH! Now the history
lesson began. Oh, that’s what Zionism is. Oh. Somewhere in those years, someone
started a film night at the local university, I went to some, and sometimes the
film was a harsh look at what had happened to Palestinian land, people,
customs, OMG. Man, the Jewish classes I took said nothing about this stuff.
Early Zionists, eager to make their point of “a land without people for people
without a land” - - except lots of people were living there, had been for a
thousand years, oh, so much to re-write in my brain. One film explained an
issue known well to Palestinians, was this
- - Zionists would poison the town well, that
would get those Palestinians to move! Then it was ‘a land without people.’ OMG. Then to learn that many thousands of
Palestinians were crammed into several refugee camps, and not just for a year
or two, nope. For the rest of their lives. Zionists had plans.
Another vivid memory, for some sad
reasons I was living in Las Cruces, NM, for a short time, met some wonderful
folks, some were Palestinians. Once, I had just bought a unusual pencil, part
of it was a tiny tube of tiny stones supposedly from around the world. I showed
it to my friends, thinking they would laugh at the silly, and the husband of
one became instantly alert and asked to hold it, I passed it to him, and he immediately
kissed the tiny tube, I was very puzzled. Then he softly said, “There might be
a stone from Palestine in there.”
Speaking of friends, one, a close
friend for years, one of the BEST Jewish guys ever, always kind, always
generous, always warm and easy. Until. Man, I’m soooooooo sad to write this.
But here it is. So, one day, my Jewish friend stopped by, we chatted for a
while, easy and friendly as always, I knew the guy for years before this
moment, I THOUGHT I knew him. Well, I had just been to a powerful event, the
parents of a young American woman, Rachel Corrie, she was killed by Israelis as
they demolished a Palestinian home, the parents came to my town to tell their
truth of the tragedy. So I started to tell my Jewish friend of what I learned
that day, why she stood before a bulldozer to protect a little house. How I
wish I could forget this. My friend
disregarded the facts and instantly went VIOLENT with his anger, jumped from
his seat, pounded his fist on the table while screaming at me, “THAT’S OUR
LAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I DON’T CARE WHAT HAPPENS TO THOSE PEOPLE. THAT’S
OUR LAND.” Suddenly I was seeing a
monster in front of me. Yes, we still have guarded friendship. I’ll always love
him anyway.
Ah, speaking of films, 2008, “Waltz
with Bashir” a graphic docu/drama, how Israeli IDF gave cover to some
Lebanon guys who hated some other Lebanon guys who lived among lots of
Palestinians who were living very unhappy lives in a locked refugee camp just
north of Israel. Check the end credits, IDF gave $$$$ for the film, for them,
it shows “we didn’t do all that killing” we just opened the gate. I guess it
doesn’t matter that what the film also brings out very strong, is how some
young Israelis do NOT like their military time. Re-occurring nightmares. Maybe
like some of our guys re: Vietnam? Iraq? Biden seems so happy that his son was
military there… When will the warmongers ever learn?
As a backstory to the film to be
discussed, is another recent New Yorker article, shocking shocking shocking,
“Notes From Underground” David Remnick, 8/12/24, we get a look at Hamas top guy
in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar. I read it, I trust the New Yorker, but this? OMG.
Sinwar, a Palestinian, has a specialty – he and his guys kill Palestinians who might
be collaborators with the Jews. Which is the only reason he was released
from Israeli prison in a swap, he didn’t have Israeli blood on his hands. I
recommend this article, a most interesting account of how while Sinwar was in
Israeli prison, a Jewish dentist working there saved Sinwar’s life. They have
something like guarded friendship. All this is background for what I saw in the
new film, “We Will Dance Again.”
As I cautioned, I come from a side
view, knowing not much about the history of Israel, etc. Well, dumb me, I read
an interesting article, New Yorker, June 17, 2024, "A Semblance of
Peace" Masha Gessen, about a small community in Israel that years ago
started a community wide arrangement that includes Palestinians. Everyone who
gets to move in has to agree to the rules, and agree to have their children
grow up with each other, learn each other’s language, culture, food, etc. I
found this fascinating, and now, after 10/7, I wondered if any of those Palestinians
condemned Hamas. More stupid, I started an email back and forth with local Gaza
activists, trying to understand why I hadn’t heard of any Palestinian condemnation
of Hamas 10/7/23. Seems simple, right? Nope. The emails flew back and forth, I
clearly deeply pissed off some of the folks, and I stepped back. The great
divide between the Americans who hate USA bombs killing Gazans and the
Americans who support Israel is real. But now, learning about Hamas seeking and
killing any Palestinian who MIGHT be collaborating with any Jew, well, there it
is. I can see now, if any Palestinian in that special community were to dis
Hamas, that would mean they like Israel, and now have a target on their back.
OMG. Likely any Palestinian from that community has been in great danger
previous to 10/7.
Now here we are. Recent New Yorker
article,” People of the Magazine” Gideon Lewis-Kraus, 9/16/24, following the
nightmare of 10/7, turns out Israelis are having serious divisions of who’s a
good Zionist, who’s not. Much discussion about what kind of Zionist are you, on
and on and on. Good Zionists don’t want to hurt Palestinians, that. Except
this, from this article, to any Palestinian, “Zionist” means one thing. No such
thing as a good Zionist.
Yes, yes, yes, what Golda Meir did,
I can sort of understand. Keep in mind, the Zionist movement started before
Hitler, that. By the time Golda started sneaking into Palestine undercover,
just an old lady, all that, well, those Jews had seen what Hitler was about,
time to get out of most of Europe. FYI, being Jewish anywhere was a bummer. The
guy who broke the back of Catholic rule of Europe? Martin Luther. That guy
HATED Jews. Then take that to what Hitler did, and hell yes, Jews were very
determined to have a place to call home without hateful neighbors next door.
Except… so sad to say, the Zionists created hateful neighbors. Prior to the 20th
century, Palestinians had no beef with Jews, not many there anyway, so nothing
to worry about. An interesting account of a famous Jewish guy’s parents, he was
born in Germany, his parents wanted to be part of the new Zionist thing in
Palestine, they moved, his mom hated it to the day she died. She loved European
high culture, music, theatre, and there was nothing nothing nothing happening
for her in Jerusalem.
Make no mistake, I can see why
Palestinians are deeply pissed at the Zionists. And yes, I can see why that
small piece of land is so vital to Israeli everything. Damn, if I was Queen of
the world, I’d give the Jews Florida and let the Palestinians go home.
As “We Will Dance Again”
begins, oh joy. Joy. Joy. And yes, I know they are Israelis, no matter how kind
and easy and sweet they are that morning, the history of the conflict is
stamped in their DNA. And that’s what Hamas sees, wants to kill, kill, kill.
Viewers get to ride the joy for 15
minutes. The fun of seeing cell phone clips is worthy, and oh, the sunrise! And
oh, the drugs! They know how to partieeee! These raves are very popular, but
not very often. Part of the excitement is that the location is not announced
until the night of! Date is known in advance, but not location! And when that
gets known, LOTS of young folks, most under 30, jump in cars and get to rave!
Even more interesting, these events are also called Trance parties. Drugs are a
feature, dancing by the thousands is the thing to do, you’ll see. CAUTION: you might have to click OFF about 20 minutes
in, that’s ok. Find more courage, try again, and I recommend, don’t watch
the rest late at night.
Why is it, if it’s a fiction story,
folks can take, seem to like, lots of killing? This time, non-fiction. LOTS of
killing. How they got film footage of Hamas guys getting ready to kill, well,
it’s there. They know they likely will be killed, that’s what God wants, so
they say.
Maybe a little info needed. Gaza is
a walled in piece of land along the Mediterranean Sea, even the coast is VERY
patrolled by IDF. Palestinian folks inside can seldom get out, it is often
referred to as an “open air prison” because the IDF have all exits on lock-down
all the time. Well, dawn on 10/7, Hamas and other such killers breeched the
Gaza wall in 60 places. After years of wicked nasty treatment, those men
had a plan. Methinks: Doesn’t it seem smart to treat people with some respect?
Why make them so angry that they do that? IDF thought they had things under
control… thought they were smarter than those Gaza guys… I contend that a big
part of the genocide happening in Gaza today, 10/3/24, 42,000 murdered, 100,000
seriously wounded, etc., I wonder if Israel is so pissed that they missed 10/7,
now it’s time to return the kill kill kill. I have deep sympathy for all the
young Americans who did the tent cities on college campuses, after all, it’s
USA bombs, our hand is in the murders. And yep, I wonder who financed and
created and smuggled the weapons used by Hamas that morning? So much for IDF
controlling Gaza, eh? Now, 10/3/2024, IDF goes into Lebanon, it starts. Guess
it’s just too hard to consider giving Palestinians a homeland, then what would
the IDF do? How about nothing? I’m still waaaaaaay pissed about Vietnam, we
killed many many many thousands of Vietnamese, and for what? For our strong
well-funded military to look important? I gotta go puke.
How well I know that we most likely
have given Israel the play book on how to claim land, just study history and
know that we kicked the Indigenous people in the teeth to get the LAND. Thank
God Biden chose Deb Haaland, an Indigenous woman, to be Secretary of the
Interior, the first Native to hold this top job in US govt. She’s doing much
work to document what bastards the whites were to kidnap their children. That
‘kill the Indian, save the man” BS. I know as I consider what’s happening in
Israel now, well, we showed them how. USA is soooooo into this, we give Israel
LOTS of bombs. Lots. Our war machine laughs all the way to the bank.
So sad, so very sad, some of the
folks we meet in “We Will Dance Again,” the Nova folks, as they
drive to the Nova location, some kinda ponder the location, it’s kinda close to
the Gaza wall, isn’t it?
As we meet folks who were at the
Nova Music Festival, each person is interviewed individually, close up, and we
come to understand some of the passions, confusions, terrible choices up close.
Good graphics shows how several of the killer groups surrounded a very big area
that included the Nova Festival. How thousands of cars got in bottlenecks,
making all sitting ducks for the guys with serious guns. If only this was a
Hollywood film…
We learn that one Nova guy and
buddies are driving in a panic, knowing some of the deadly facts, they drive
into an IDF base. Wait until you learn what they learned.
Because of the clips from Hamas
action, we see the determination for them to kill as many as possible. It makes
me sick to think that very likely they see this film as their great victory.
How many, you ask? With the Nova
murdered, 364. Hostages=44. Hundreds more were wounded, thousands are receiving
counseling, and some suicides. One group of 10/7 survivors are suing Israeli
Security Services for failure to foresee and stop the massacre.
That point about how the Hamas top
guy kills Palestinians? One very very very hard part to watch, some Nova folks
are crowded into a little concrete room, “bomb shelter,” a young woman tells her account of that and
how one guy, a Bedouin (Muslim, not quite Palestinian but close) guy, not part
of the Nova crowd, but he’s there, works nearby and came to that space also, as
Hamas was sending LOTS of rockets, she chatted with him, then, when the killers
arrived, the Bedouin guy stepped out to talk to them and that was his end.
You’ll see.
It gets worse. Many had no cell
service, thus had no idea what was happening all around them. Some, with cell
service, call police, oh, ugly. Some called ambulance service, oh, Surrrrre.
Here’s an idea that turned deadly
at Nova. Hide in a porta-potty. Viewers, prepare yourselves to stop breathing.
OMG.
Facts: Gaza rockets:
6:29 am and for hours. Hamas guys with guns, about 7:am.
First
Israeli police: 12:30 pm.
Israeli
Defense Forces: 2:30 pm.
Nova folks who hid were VERY
suspicious, hours later, of someone yelling “IDF! Anyone here?” Could be
terrorists, 20 minutes ago terrorists roamed around, yelling in Hebrew, trying
to fool Nova folks hiding for their lives.
Now I start to wonder - - last I
knew, every young guy in Israel has to serve in the IDF. Well, not every guy as
of 10/7/23. If you were an ultra-Orthodox guy, exempt. I think there has been
some change in this, except some of the ultra-Orthodox run Israel, oh. FYI, years
ago, right here in my town, I was with a Jewish friend as we attended an event,
also there were some ultra-Orthodox, even a Rabbi with them. My Jewish friend
and I approached, they talked for a minute or so, and my friend reached out and
touched the Rabbi’s coat arm. The Rabbi looked very offended, we walked on.
After a bit, my Jewish friend said he’d caused a big problem for the Rabbi, as
since he had touched the Rabbi’s coat, the Rabbi would have to clean the coat.
And he asked, did I notice that as I was introduced to the Rabbi, he didn’t
offer his hand? No ultra-Orthodox man will EVER touch a non-ultra woman. EVER. So, looking at the Nova folks, many young men,
did most of them serve? Were some still serving but having a holiday? And yes,
they didn’t pack guns to come to a music thing, but once the ground murderers
showed up, was there no way to outsmart them and get their guns? A girl can
dream. And yeah, most Nova folks had dropped big drugs just that morning, so
they weren’t fully functioning. Turns out their best choice was to run for
their lives. Along the way, a Nova guy did get a gun, you’ll see. One guy with a
gun against 50 killers?
I admit, I wasn’t into dropping big
drugs much at that age. Tried once, twice, nope. I want to be in control of my
happs. It’s my thing. I like little highs.
My mind keeps putting the scene
into the happy Woodstock Festival of 1969 ~ LOTS of waaaaaay happy young folks
enjoying life and the solidarity of each other. I wasn’t there, wasn’t a hippie
yet, but seeing film of Woodstock and now watching this Nova Festival, what if?
Ending is powerful, screen after
screen after screen after screen after screen of the dead Nova folks. OMG.
One young Nova man says, “I’m never
gonna be the person that I was before Oct. 7, and I’m trying to figure out who
I’m gonna be now.”
