Wonder Woman, Gal Gadot and Israel

The news from Israel has been bad. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister, has aligned himself with the odious U.S. President. Netanyahu is beholden to the right-wing Jewish religious parties, just as Trump is under the sway of right-wing Christians in the United States. This week, Netanyahu backed out on a deal to create a space at the Western Wall where men and women can pray together, and reaffirmed that only conversions by Orthodox rabbis are valid in Israel. On Rosh Hodesh, the beginning of the Hebrew month last week, Nashot HaKotel (Women of the Wall) brought a Torah scroll to the women's prayer section, and were harassed by Orthodox men. Rick Jacobs, the head of The Union For Reform Judaism, canceled a meeting with Netanyahu. For liberal American Jews, it is hard to continue to support Israel.

There are some who would boycott the new movie, Wonder Woman, because the star, Gal Gadot, is Israeli, and like most Israelis, an Army veteran. I read that the movie was banned in Lebanon because of its Israeli star.

I'm not one for boycotts, and the film got terrific reviews. Normally I don't see movies where there are car or airplane chases, stunts or things blowing up. I don't care for war movies. I like hipster foreign films, movies with a lot of talking, and romance. A gay or Jewish theme helps. I like films by Woody Allen, Pedro Almodóvar and Lars Von Trier. Wonder Woman is not my kind of movie.

I went tonight, I think the first time this year that I've been to a movie in a theater in Morgantown.
I loved this movie. And what I liked most was Gal Gadot. She is terrific, but the part I love is that she reminds me of everything I like about people from Israel. She is strong, smart, knows who she is, and carries the history of her people with her. She is sexy, vulnerable, funny, charming, and headstrong. I don't mean to stereotype  a whole people (although I suppose that is what I am doing), but that is how I see Israelis. She sees how hopeless peace is, but she still wants to work for it. It took an Israeli actress to be able to portray all of those qualities.

Kudos to director Patty Jenkins for having the wisdom of a woman to have the only actor partially nude in the movie be Chris Pine.

I guess I'm saying that if Wonder Woman can find a redeeming value in mankind, then, through Gal Gadot's depiction of her, I can find hope for Israel, and maybe, by extension, for the United States.