The 50 Years War: Israel and the Arabs (1998– ) User Reviews

Facts. Great Politics. Both sides.

[del_lover · 9/10 · 10 December 2005]

In fact I wrote my comments on the philosophy and mankind. Sorry for my lack of knowledge in English!

The first 5 minutes of the movie will provide you with sufficient information why the war started.

In my opinion we, the Europeans really need to excuse to both the Israeli and Arab people for the crisis that we created. Let this never ever happen again. If you watched the movie, you know what I do talk about - WWII, Nazi's push the Israeli, Israeli go to Palestina, British forces leave Palestina but they do not leave it to the Palestinians. And why Europeans created the crisis? In my personal view (with which you may disagree with of course), the UN preferred to have the Israeli in an Arab country, rather than on it is own territory. It means green light for Israel as a country.

The movie contains great political lessons.

The movie describes to a very good and quite balanced extent the view of Israel and Palestina. Palestinians talk a bit less, but this is not making any trouble. It is more of a trouble that too few opinions from regular people are recorded. But believe me you got quite a lot of speeches from so many countries.

After watching the first 10 mins, if you are close to ethnic problems you will know for sure, that with Israeli having a country, and the Palestinians not, it is impossible for the Palestinians to live well. But well I, need to know if, how and when the Israeli were opresing the Palestinians. For example but not giving them jobs if there is a Israeli applicant... I don't want to go against a nation, but the Israeli are famous for their nationalism. It is hard when you have no job, no money, no food for your children. However it doesn't means you have to go to a war.

I was most impressed by a king. A man that in the end of his life was enlightened and knew what is life about, and how to live it. We urgently need people like him.

Watch it! One of the great politicians, which seems to have changed his opinions during the years, is lying us. It is not defending of his position, he is lying definitely. And he looks so damn polite.

Homework:

• Was Israel going to give anything to Palestina if there was no terror?

• Do you believe it is possible for the US president to decide emotionally and on his own, weather or not there will be Israel?

• Why we do start loosing if we always need a better score (diorF)? - What do we live for and what kind of people we should be? - Are there really big gifts in politics, i.e. ChechoSlovakia to help Israel? Ohwell, at least I do believe there should be gifts in this World. I won't comment if that is the case. - Don't you see Saddam as a victim in the Israeli-Iraq conflict, rather than the Gulf? The man just wanted to be the greatest Arab leader, after the Egyptian's had their rip. And he just bombarded the people...

• When we have problems to solve, we put aside the currently non resolvable and we...?

In the end if some people have their representative, even if he is a terrorist, you must negotiate with him. Killing Arafat with poison is not a move in the correct direction if performed by the Israeli. It is quite possible for the people to re-elect a man with similar views. If not, they will keep their anger, until a next revolt. OK... i will double say my mind the previous paragraph. Do you remember what the Egyptian president said: "I can't do that. If I do that, my people will not agree." (not exact quotes around!). The same for PLO - "We can't negotiate, after Israel decided to take so much prisoners". It is the same for Israel too - watch the news. OK... i will triple say it, and it is quite important to know that: killing political leaders hardly lead to switches in the political view of the masses (infact the killed is treated like an immortal). It makes no sense of killing. Don't kill people. Don't kill.

• Did Arafat used some of the historical situations to gain political power disregarding the needs of the Palestinians? For example preventing peace? It is a hard question and I don't know the facts. Keep in mind that every peace of info you have on the problem could be inaccurate.

Tips for the next elections in your school (kidding): -Don't choose a hard-liner.

The Real Stories behind the headlines

[rjspence · 10/10 · 28 January 2001]

For anyone who's the least bit interested in international history and politics this is a fascinating documentary. The story of the Israeli-Arab conflict from 1947 to 1998 has been written about in newspapers and depicted in newscasts. Always, however, one has been left with the incomplete story, or a story reported with a slant. Here is something very different. The politicians, the generals, the terrorists, the peacemakers, the citizens - so very many of the important people who were involved in this history provide us with insightful present-day interviews into what was happening when they themselves were making history over the past 50 year period. To hear President Jimmy Carter explain how and why Anwar Sadat almost stormed out of the Camp David peace talks before a deal was reached makes and how he managed to salvage this situation at the last minute; to hear the top military brass of Syria explain why he was terrified at the prospect of a face to face meeting with Israelis (because it has never before happened) - these are the kinds of glimpses into history that make this documentary the success that it is. It is near-perfect.

you actually get the REAL story by the leaders themselves

[ramzoozi · 10/10 · 20 November 2004]

This documentary is by far, the best one i have ever seen, you get to hear first hand story lines from the leaders of the nations (at the time) themselves, USA presidents, Israely PM, Palestinian leaders, Syrian military leaders, etc.

Its really worth watching, especially that we would want to know the true story behind all the news we have been hearing about them for as long as we can remember!

it also covers in depth, the true happenings of the Oslo agreement, and how it went sour..

not only that, but you get to see how the sensitivity between the two peoples has grown over the past 50 years alone.

Stunning lesson in history and politics

[outsider-2 · 18 May 2003]

This was a complete eye-opener for me - and I'd considered myself pretty familiar with the politics and history of the region since I lived there for a significant period of time. To hear about these events from the very mouths of the people who were there, its just the most fascinating thing ever. Absolutely mandatory viewing.

Absolutely superb documentary

[royabbas · 10/10 · 28 December 2015]

This documentary is an absolutely thorough and scrupulous analysis of this perennial and hyperbolic conflict. I believe that this should be the starting point for anyone looking to understand this issue of Arab Israeli conflict. This is the most unbiased and impartial documentary i have ever seen on this issue. It covers all the major events in this conflict along with the painstaking peace efforts by the Americans. The important thing that this documentary has done is to debunk the anti Israeli propaganda that has been quite common among Muslims and leftists in the West. It also shows the detailed point of views of all the major stakeholders in this conflict

UK version more reliable

[andrew-lyall · 5/10 · 31 October 2008]

The UK version, narrated by Tim Piggott-Smith, has subtitles, rather than the dubbed USA version. At one point Prime Minister Shamir of Israel is asked why he authorized the assassination of Abu Nidal, who had organized the first Intefada - they threw stones, did not use guns or grenades, etc. Shamir, speaking in Hebrew, says that Nidal was an enemy of Isreal and adds that "It was no big deal". This is translated in the UK subtitle version. The US dubbed version omits this last comment in the soundtrack. It is a matter of personal preference, but I would prefer to know actually what was said, rather than what appears to be a sanitized version and one which also appears to have some bias towards the Isreali position. The UK version does not seem to be currently available on DVD.