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Munich News Central
Surviving member of Munich terrorists hits out at Spielberg
Steven Spielberg has been criticised by the only surviving Palestinian terrorist behind the massacre at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany, because the director failed to consult him over his new movie dramatisation of the tragic events.
Mohammed Daoud was a member of terror group Black September in the early 1970s and was responsible for the deaths of 11 Israelis in Munich's Olympic Village. He has been on the run ever since.
But Daoud is so angry with Spielberg's supposedly pro-Israel stance in new film Munich, he contacted news agency Reuters to put forward his side of the story.
He says, "If someone really wanted to tell the truth about what happened he should talk to the people involved, people who know the truth. Were I contacted, I would tell the truth.
"(Israel) carried out vengeance against people who had nothing to do with the Munich attack, people who were merely politically active or had ties with the Plo (Palestine Liberation Organisation)."
Widows give OK to 'Munich'
The widows of two of the 11 Israeli athletes killed in the 1972 Olympic massacre detailed in Steven Spielberg's new film "Munich" say the movie neither dishonors their husbands' memories nor tarnishes their country's image.
Ilana Romano, widow of weightlifter Yosef Romano, and Ankie Spitzer, who was married to fencing coach Andre Spitzer, are the only Israelis in Jerusalem to have seen the film before its official release late next month. The movie opened in the U.S. Friday.
Spielberg's co-producer, Kathleen Kennedy, and one of the movie's screenwriters, Tony Kushner, arrived in Israel earlier this month to hold a private screening for the two widows. That was followed by an emotional discussion that lasted several hours, the women said.
"Kathleen Kennedy said to us that Steven Spielberg's worst nightmare would be that after we saw the movie, we would say that our husbands were turning in their graves," recalled Spitzer. "So I said, 'Well, you can tell Spielberg that he can sleep quietly, because this is absolutely not the case.' "
Her one reservation, though, was a concern that those unfamiliar with the story would not be able to separate fact from fiction. "I know that part of it is based on historical events and part is based on fiction, and I don't think that the regular viewer is going to understand."
But, she added, "we don't have a problem with it; the opposite, we are glad that people are being reminded of what happened in Munich so it will never happen again."
Marvin Levy, Spielberg's L.A.-based spokesman, said the screening for the two widows was "the most sensitive we would have…. When they said that any concern they might have had was satisfied, this was enormously gratifying and Steven is very proud of that."
 Spielberg talks about 'Munich' in Time magazineDirector Steven Spielberg said his new film "Munich," the story of Israel's revenge for the killing of its athletes by Palestinian guerrillas at the 1972 Olympics, is "a prayer for peace," Time magazine reported Sunday.
Leaders of Jewish and Muslim groups as well as diplomats and foreign policy experts will preview the film before its Dec. 23 U.S. opening but Spielberg has shied away from the media hype and costly promotional campaigns that typically precede a big-studio movie.
The magazine said its interview was the only one the Oscar-winning director planned to do before the release of the film, which focuses on Israel's response after a Palestinian group took members of its Olympic team hostage at the Munich Games. Eleven Israeli athletes, five kidnappers and one German policeman were killed. (Reuters)
 Full StoryCultures in conflict
There's only one thing that Palestinian terrorist Abu Daoud and Israel's former Mossad spy chief Zvi Zamir can agree on: They're both publicly miffed that they weren't consulted beforehand about Steven Spielberg's new film, "Munich."
The film focuses on the 1972 Olympic massacre of 11 Israeli athletes — carried out by Black September, Daoud's organization — and the Israeli retaliation, in which a Mossad team hunted down and killed the terrorists, the first instance of Israel's still controversial practice of "targeted killing."
Months before the Dec. 23 release of "Munich," interested parties across the political spectrum are gearing up for the film, which has been shrouded in intense secrecy — even by Hollywood standards.
Shot this past summer in Malta, Budapest, Paris and New York, "Munich" was written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner ("Angels in America") after passes by such notables as Oscar winner Eric Roth ("Forrest Gump"). It stars Eric Bana, Daniel Craig (the newly named James Bond) and Geoffrey Rush.
Spielberg is well known for his wrenching depiction of the Holocaust in "Schindler's List" and his philanthropic Shoah Foundation, which records the oral histories of Holocaust survivors. But until now he has largely eschewed wading into the contentious fray of Middle Eastern politics. Indeed, until he actually began filming, some associates privately wondered if he'd ever really make the movie.
He has been proceeding cautiously, soliciting advice from a raft of political and public relations experts, among them former Middle East envoy Dennis Ross, former President Bill Clinton, former White House spokesman Mike McCurry, and Allan Mayer, a Hollywood public relations executive who specializes in crisis management.
Spielberg is focusing on one of the seminal events in the modern history of terrorism, a bloodbath that played out on American TV and wound up publicizing what was then a little-known cause.
On Sept. 5, 1972, Palestinian terrorists stormed an Olympic Village apartment building, killing two Israeli athletes and holding nine others hostage in an effort to gain the freedom of 200 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. In a failed rescue attempt after a 20-hour standoff, the nine hostages — as well as five terrorists and a German policeman — were killed.
The attack dealt a blow to Israel's confidence with the message that there was no place in the world where its citizens could be safe. After the massacre, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir instructed Israeli intelligence agents to hunt down the terrorist perpetrators and kill them, in a counterterrorist campaign that was called "Wrath of God."
To this day, it remains a charged topic in Israel. In a carefully worded statement issued this summer to an Israeli paper, an American paper and an Arab TV station, Spielberg, in his only public comment thus far, explained his intentions: "Viewing Israel's response to Munich through the eyes of the men who were sent to avenge that tragedy adds a human dimension to a horrific episode that we usually think about only in political or military terms. By experiencing how the implacable resolve of these men to succeed in their mission slowly gave way to troubling doubts about what they were doing, I think we can learn something important about the tragic standoff we find ourselves in today."
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