The riveting Israeli documentary, The Gatekeepers, is history revisited through the cross hairs of a gun or missile launcher. Pure-grade catnip for those who prefer big-picture philosophizing with an elevated heart rate, Dror Moreh’s film blasts past all the stale positions and tired arguments to put us at the crossroads — right here, right now — of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The audaciousness and perversity of The Gatekeepers lies in Moreh’s belief that confronting past mistakes is essential for Israel to change its course vis-à-vis the Palestinians. This is patently naïve, on one hand, because history counts for nothing in the Middle East. Yes, many Jewish settlers wield the Old Testament in support of their claims to the West Bank (on religious grounds, primarily). And countless Palestinian families cherish the keys to the houses they fled after the state of Israel was created in 1948, convinced that one day they will return. But the past is irrelevant compared to current political realities.
Moreh isn’t so naïve, after all, for his goal is to shift the discussion, in Israel and the U.S., and generate a new realpolitik. To that end, he interviews half a dozen former heads of Israel’s intelligence service, the Shin Bet, who are loyal, unimpeachable, and nonpartisan representatives of the establishment. The filmmaker’s calculation is that those on the center-right — the reasonable opposition, if you will — won’t listen to anyone else.
Ami Ayalon in The Gatekeepers. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.
When Moreh was in San Francisco in January to do a day of interviews in support of the Oscar-nominated The Gatekeepers, which opens tomorrow, February 22, around the Bay Area, he was quite candid about his approach. There’s no point in engaging the extremists at either end of the spectrum, he noted, and people on the left already agree with his view that the solution is two states. If those on the center-right can be persuaded, a moderate, broad-based coalition (in the government, as well as among the citizenry) can be formed to pursue the peace process.