That's how we are. Singing and wrecking.

Gideon Levy's take on Waltz with Bashir, 'Antiwar' film Waltz with Bashir nothing but a charade, is a devastatingly honest look at how self-centeredly the suffering in Waltz with Bashir is portrayed. Folman focuses nearly the entire movie on his own guilt and confusion about his role in Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982, except for the last 30 seconds of the film (I won't give it away for those who haven't seen it, although the article does). It centers around his moral and conscious wrestling with his actions and his own Jewish history. Levy rightfully holds the bar for art higher than Folman in that the movie focuses solely on the Israeli experience of 1982, and not the Lebanese or Palestinian. War affects everyone who participates in it or survives it, however in the spirit of true engagement and critical thinking Folman's movie could have done more to focus on the suffering of those who bore the heaviest burden in 1982--the Lebanese and Palestinians. That said, my personal reaction is still that I expect very little from mainstream Jewish Israel in terms of addressing past wrongs in regards to Palestinians in particular and Arabs at large. Not because I don't think they should address these wrongs, but because the Gideon Levys and Ilan Pappes and Amira Hasses of Israel are few and far between-- those who take a meaningful and truly critical look at Israel's past and have the moral courage to say "it's not always about us-- a lot of the time, it's about them." Folman's film poked larger holes in the illusion of the IDF being the world's most "moral army" at a very critical moment (the film came out during the Gaza war), and those who saw Waltz probably were led to reflect not only on Lebanon, but Gaza. So I accept Folman's baby steps of retrospectivity. Maybe the baby steps will grow.