The Other McCain

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Israel and ‘The Godfather’

Posted on | October 8, 2023 | Comments Off on Israel and ‘The Godfather’

“Barzini is dead. So is Phillip Tattaglia. Moe Greene. Stracci. Cuneo. Today I settled all family business, so don’t tell me that you’re innocent. Admit what you did.”
— Michael Corleone, The Godfather (1973)

In the comments on yesterday’s post about the Hamas attack on Israel, we learned something new: Dianna Deeley has never watched The Godfather, which is why she didn’t get a reference to a key plot point in the movie, when Don Corleone finally realizes that “it was Barzini all along.”

After I saw the comment, I actually called Dianna to express my shock that she’d never seen The Godfather. “I don’t like mob movies,” she said. And I was outraged. The Godfather is a “mob movie” in roughly the same sense that Casablanca is a “World War II movie.” The mafia context of The Godfather is merely the background for a Greek tragedy about family loyalty and personal honor. Although Michael’s father had hoped to spare his youngest son from the family’s crime business, a series of crises makes it necessary — inevitable, a matter of fate — that Michael step in to become the family’s next leader.

This attack came on the 50th anniversary of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. For young people in Israel, that war is something they study in history class, but now its significance — Israel’s struggle to survive when hit by a sudden attack from its enemies — must be perfectly apparent to them.

The flippant comment that provoked this consideration — dismissing Hamas as “pimps,” like Tataglia, so that Iran is the Barzini behind the scenes — was actually a clever analogy, but the larger drama is this: A younger generation of Israelis must finally abandon the illusion of “peace” with the Palestinians.

Shani Louk, a victim of Hamas

One of the most horrific images of the first 24 hours of this war was the naked corpse of a young woman being paraded around by Hamas terrorists. Because her tattoos were visible, it was possible to identify this victim as Shani Louk, a German citizen who had come to celebrate a holiday music festival:

Hundreds of Israelis and foreigners came together in Kibbutz Re’im near the Gaza Strip for a vibrant celebration of music and culture — the Tribe of Nova — intended as a means of united human expression and connection. And the music trance festival was being held to celebrate the end of the Jewish holiday Sukkot.
But the atmosphere of joy and festivity was interrupted by the horrific sounds of gunfire and soon after, troops of Hamas militants swooped in, terrorising the festivalgoers. A place that was teeming with life was turned into a scene of devastation, echoing with cries and reverberating with shock and loss. Several videos surfaced on social media showing panic-stricken people escaping from the music festival as shots of gunfire were heard in the background when the Hamas militants launched a sudden attack.
In one video, Noa Argamani, a 25-year-old Israeli woman, is seen carted away on a motorcycle of a Hamas militant while she pleads for her life. “Don’t kill me! No, no, no,” says Argamani, who was present at the festival. The camera pans to her boyfriend, Avi Nathan, who looks on at his girlfriend helplessly while being held hostage by the militants.
In another video, the naked and battered body of a German woman, Shani Louk, a tattoo artist, was paraded in the back of a pickup truck by Hamas. Amidst a raucous crowd, the militants spat on the woman’s body.
Shani’s sister Adi Louk confirmed that it was her sister in the video. Her mother appealed to people for more information regarding her whereabouts. According to Shani’s first cousin, the victim had been reportedly missing after militants took control of the Tribe of Nova festival on Saturday morning.

No more festivals. No more dance parties. Nothing but all-out war now — the young people of Israel ultimately have no choice. They must kill or be killed.

Do you see how The Godfather is relevant? It was not Michael’s choice. That choice was made for him by his father’s enemies, who first attempted to assassinate Don Corleone, and then succeeded in assassinating Michael’s older brother Sonny. But Michael was the smart one, and with cool cunning he waited for the right moment to retaliate, to “settle all family business,” including with his brother-in-law Carlo Rizzi, who had betrayed Sonny to Barzini.

Israel must not only destroy Hamas, but they must also retaliate against Iran, which sponsors Hamas. Nothing personal. “It’s strictly business.”



 

Category: Israel

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