Just saw the film Munich , the Hollywood version of the story of Israeli retaliation after the kidnapping and murder of 11 athletes at the 1972 Olympics.

Steven Spielberg directed and the quality is excellent.

I thought it was remarkably unbiased. Both the Palestinian terrorists and the amateur Israeli retaliation team are shown as people, not heroes or villains.

Spielberg focuses on “the cyclic nature of revenge and the moral price of violence”.

Everyone is a loser in this film.

I might have liked the movie better if I had not read the book on which it is based, Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team by George Jonas.

Jonas attempted to document the true story of one of the Israelis, Yuval Aviv, who is played by Eric Bana in the movie.

In the book the assassinations of people on a list who may or may not be involved in Munich was much uglier than in the film.

Well … the movie is “inspired by the true story”. The book criticized as being inaccurate regarding the true story. The facts are muddled.

But one thing is clear to everyone. Assassination and counter-assassination do not work, long-term.

I recommend both film and book.