Essay Example on Israel-Pakistan: Conflict of Loyalties

Israel and Pakistan have not always shared a good relationship (Malhotra, 2019). Palestinians hold grudges with Israelites, including their military affiliation. One of the distinct causes of these skewed relationships is conflicting loyalty. Borrowing from the movies, 'Bethlehem and Israel vs. Israel' below is an in-depth analysis.

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Bethlehem is an Israeli drama film directed by Yuval Adler. The film has won several Israeli film awards and international awards. The plot of the film is centered on the protagonist, a secret service officer who is loyal to Israel, a character named Razi. He, however, shares a complicated relationship with his teenage Palestinian informant, Sandefur. The film begins by a Palestinian considered dangerous known as Ibrahim going missing and has to be found. Ibrahim is responsible for a terrorist bombing and has gone into hiding. To find Ibrahim, Razi, the agent, recruits a teenage Sandefur. Sanford is a Palestinian supposed to help the agency gather information on Ibrahim, the alleged terrorist (Malley, 2020). Things get particularly interesting and conflicting when Razi ceases to see Sanfur as an asset but as a friend and close confidant with whom he spends more time than he does with his own family. Sanford also keeps a lot of secrets from the terror group and has to rely on Razi for protection. The scenes between Razi and Sanfu are lovely, but they are loyal to the teams they work for (Malley, 2020). Their relationship now begins to cloud their judgments. Razi's colleagues in the police force want him to destroy his asset promptly that it is not useful anymore. Razi cannot terminate his asset having created a stronger relationship between him and Sanfur (Malley, 2020). He sees Sanfur as more than just an asset. It is the wall of loyalty, connection, and friendship that closes in on both Razi and Sandefur. In the light of hope, it is the relationship between Razi and Sanfur that holds the city of Bethlehem together. It is through the link that they share there is a glimmer of hope through reconciliation.

In the movie Israel vs. Israeli, the producer Terje Carlsson presents us with four Jewish peace activists. The four-piece activists have stood against forty years of occupation and illegal settlement in Palestine. As the film begins, they are people who should be celebrated for advocating for human rights existence in Palestine (Nyberg, 2020). In an exciting turn of events, their advocacy for peace for Palestinians is seen as an act of betrayal from their fellow countrymen, the Israelites. They are demonized and viewed as disloyal to their country, Israel (Nyberg, 2020). The film ends in the ridiculing of the four peace soldiers for their honest commitment. The fight for peace is conflicted with loyalty in the film, 'Israel vs. Israel.'

The two movies present a tense relationship between Israel and Palestine. The common thing in both films is that they identify that through unity, there is little hope that the relationship can be strengthened to that where there is no war. The war is, however, fuelled by conflicting loyalties. Loyalties to self, loyalty to country, and loyalty to family are the causes of the war. All these forms of devotion are doubted once an Israelite is seen associating with a Pakistani and vice versa. It is vital to notice that in the movie 'Bethlehem,' with the existence of Razi and Sanfur, there are hopes of reconciliation. As it happens in the mentioned film, the same logic applies to the movie, 'Israel vs. Israel.' In the latter, the four Israelites at the beginning are considered ambassadors of peace worth celebrating. The film requires the audience to contemplate the importance of Israel and Palestine, sharing a positive relation. They identify the screwed pieces of unity as an issue to be admired.

In matters of ethics, it is beyond doubt that both movies suffer plot assassination when they pull out from the first track of promoting unity. 'Bethlehem' suffers from the doomed hopes of reconciliation while 'Israel vs. Israel' suffers from losing crucial professionals by associating them to Pakistan.

From the discussion, it is clear that loyalty holds back the effort towards reconciling the two nations. Further interaction should be achieved so that members of each country realize they are meant for greater things to humanity than loyalty to family, state, the army, and the nation.

References

Malhotra, D. (2019). Pakistan-Israel Relations: Decoding Strategic Silence. https://www.claws.in/static/Pakistan-Israel-Relations.pdf

Malley, S. (2020) Bethlehem movie review & film summary (2014) | Roger Ebert [online]. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/bethlehem-2014 (Accessed 3 April 2020).

Nyberg,j.(2020) Israelvs.Israel [online]. https://www.cinemapolitica.org/film/israel-vs-israel (Accessed 3 April 2020).