I had read something a few years ago about the employees of an Israeli instant messaging company with an office in the World Trade Center being warned not to go to work on September 11, 2001 - and was immediately skeptical, of course - but I had no idea how pervasive and emphatic this belief in Jewish involvement in the tragedy was.
The director, Marc Levin, did an admirable job of walking the line on this delicate subject, especially considering how reluctant whole communities of people are to talk about Israel and America. I'm reading The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy right now, and, even at this early stage, it's clear that there's more to the relationship between the two countries than is openly discussed.
Levin, however, doesn't try to cast any particular light on this, or on Israel's relationship with the rest of the Middle East. He simply takes the pulse of a wide range of Americans - pointing out some obvious exaggerations along the way - and should be commended for that achievement.
Some might take exception to that statement, and I guess the personal experiences of Levin and his father could be taken as a "See, we aren't the bad guys" line; but, for me, that's an important point: we need to bring the nature of humanity to this discussion, with all of its competing ambitions and unique motivations. Otherwise, the absurdity of these Zionist conspiracies can't be fully appreciated.
