Benjamin Netanyahu 

                              (credit: Arbeitsbesuch Israel via Wikimedia Commons) 

Historical Traffic

The movie “Traffic” is one of the most interesting films ever made. It told two stories, woven into one another, showing two perspectives on the war on drugs. One story is about a teenaged girl in the U.S. in the 90s, who is the daughter of a judge. The judge, at the beginning of the story, is a hardliner, on the bench and in his life away from court. A disciple of the Reagans’ “just say no” doctrine.

The second story follows a kingpin of the drug cartels, and his beautiful, shrewd wife. Along the way, we see other players: Drug Enforcement Administration agents and a disillusioned Mexican cop, who sees all sides of the drug trade and its consequences, but still keeps trying to bring some order and decency to his job and his world. A decent guy in a corrupt place and time.

The story stuck in my head. It was brilliant because all the ingredients of a good film were there – story, directing, acting, editing – all of it, but more important was the fact that it taught me something profound. In the end, the judge and his wife get humbled by the struggle of their daughter with her addiction. She’s still their little girl, bright and lovable, but – oh, my – how all their lives change. Lost weekends. Near brushes with death. Rehab. The judge, at a group therapy session near the end of the film, says to the facilitator, that he and his wife are “just here to listen”. The mighty get brought low, but along the way they become human.

In the meantime, in the larger drug war ravaging both sides of the border, one gang wins, another loses – for the time being – and the DEA get used. They are pawns in the cartels’ game.

And the Mexican cop? He has to watch his partner get murdered in front of his face. Along the way, he does get a small consolation: he manages to wrangle out of one of the ugly deals he is forced into, some electricity for his town so that the kids there can play baseball in the evenings, and maybe stay out of gang life.

Another personal, human touch.

In the overall view, lies, murder, and greed are all there on every side. And the plot is so convoluted that audiences are left wondering what happened.

It hit me clearly at the end that I would be days sorting this story out, but a few things were for sure: the demand for coke in the U.S. is bottomless; the majority of the people of Mexico are victims, not beneficiaries of the U.S. suburbs’ joy of coke; and the DEA guys in their meetings and machinations, most of the time, haven’t clue what’s really going on.

But why? Why are American laws and enforcement efforts so futile so much of the time? I thought I saw it in the face of the Mexican policeman played by Benicio del Toro. He knows what has happened. The DEA got outwitted and manipulated by the Juarez cartel. The U.S. cops got played. The ultimate reason for that is that they grossly underestimated their adversaries. Always, a bad flaw to suffer from. They didn’t get that Mexicans could be just as smart as they are. And, for me, that is the story’s point.

What does all of this have to do with now? Just this: a parallel situation is, in my opinion, developing in the Middle East. Parallel?! Yes. Look at it.

What got the Jews of Europe into a position of power at the end of WWII was not the Rothschilds’ wealth or the Elders of Zion or any such nonsense. What gave them the strength that they’re squandering like found money now was a wave of world opinion. The nations forming the UN felt real sympathy for the Jews as the truth about the Nazi camps began to come out. After the war, an unbelievable figure. Six million people. The evidence, the documents, and the witnesses were all there. Six million. And that could very well be a low estimate. How could such a thing happen? Those poor people! They had world sympathy. They parlayed it into a land of their own. They’re losing that sympathy now.

And the Arabs? Too many in the West forget that their culture is also thousands of years old. They can be just as skillful as any other players out there at what is called “The Great Game”. Money, politics, diplomacy. Power. War. “War is the continuation of politics by other means.” (von Clausewitz)

Hamas leaders had seen demonstrated before their eyes for three generations that they’d never match the Israelis in high-tech weapons. They were as brave as the Israelis. But the Palestinian leaders learned the hard way that courage is not enough. In the global picture, over the long haul of centuries, what changes outcomes is having the support of powerful allies. World opinion. Bibi has lost it now. Maybe past all recovery. One shaky ally left. If the next U.S. president says, “Enough is enough!!” (DT would love to say that.), what then? The loss of all world support? Maybe even for centuries?

So what does a film about drug cartels have to do with today’s politics? Nothing and everything. The Israelis are being played now. Hamas leaders foresaw this endgame. They have one asset, and they are using it. They have thousands of people who are willing to die for a cause. A laughable way to try to win a war, you say? Not if you play the long game. It has worked before, and we don’t have to look far to find an example. Bibi is being played. He’s easy to manipulate. He thinks all Palestinians are idiots. His idea of the long game is staying out of jail.  

But you have a nice day, anyway. This stuff all involves people who have been killing one another for millennia, and it’s all far away. It can’t happen here.

T

                                                      actor Benicio del Toro 

                                    (credit: Gage Skidmore, via Wikimedia Commons)