On the 42nd anniversary of the Sabra & Shatila massacre, I’m reminded of this film “Waltz with Bashir”, an Israeli apologia for its soldiers’ role in the massacre. Mark my words: within the next decade we will witness a whole genre of similar hand-wringing as Israelis wrestle with what they’ve participated in since October 7th, and conveniently ignore all they did beforehand, just as Folman (the film’s director) did of all the other massacres Israel committed in 1982, and far more directly than in Sabra & Shatila. The best that can be said of this genre of crocodile tearjerkers is that it will—I predict—arrive far sooner than the nearly quarter-century that passed between the Sabra & Shatila massacre and “Waltz with Bashir”. Aside from that, we can expect to see the same centering of the Israeli experience, the humanization of murderous soldiers and the casting of Palestinians into the out-of-focus background, the amorphous scenery against which Israelis come to terms with their fall from most-moral grace. The more ham-fisted iterations of the formula will screen cartoonish portrayals of Palestinian “terrorists”, the better to sputter into the face of ethical clarity, “IT’S COMPLICATED!”

Consider yourself inoculated, and for further protection, read this contemporaneous review of “Waltz with Bashir” in the Electronic Intifada, and this translation of a review by As`ad Abu Khalil by yours truly that appeared on this very blog.