The Essentials of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

From Sandra Hall's review of Last Dance in yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald:

"Last Dance strips the Israeli-Palestinian conflict down to its essentials." (Power shifts from captor to captive as anger drains away with blood)

Right, Sandra, and what, pray, are these? 

Well, let's begin with the Palestinian side of the equation:

"[Sadiq] ranges through her apartment, waving a knife at her and spraying vitriol, or rather, repeatedly spitting out the word 'Jew', which is the most virulent form of abuse that he knows." 

There you go, typical bloody Palestinian! Make no mistake, trembling viewer, we've entered the dark, obsessive realm of Circus Israel's Dream Arab:

Circus Israel: Nabila, tell us about yourself.
Nabila Hatem: Like I've been saying. I'm anti-Semitic. It's really all you need to know about me. I'm basically just an anti-Semitic young woman. I spend all my time being anti-Semitic. Morning, noon and night. Sometimes, I forget to eat, and when someone tells me I might get sick, I yell at them - 'Can't you see I'm busy being anti-Semitic!' I don't like when something interferes with my anti-Semitism. I don't care about work, or having things or being healthy, and I don't care about my family or my community. I'm just anti-Semitic." (For the full monty on Nabila Hatem, see my 19/7/11 post A Hate Supreme.)

As for the Israeli side, it's all there: helpless victim, Einstein intellect, and a courage forged in a Nazi death camp:

"Ullah is gagged and tied to a chair... There's a forensic intelligence giving Blake's performance its spine, as well as the courage of someone who's willing to risk everything. This courage presumably goes back to the suffering Ullah endured in a concentration camp."

There you are viewer, now you know the essentials of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. What an enlightening film!

[See my earlier posts on Last Dance: One Incredibly Dumb Idea (11/8/12) and Jeeesus! (27/10/12).]