Promised Land the Movie (UPDATED)

Tomorrow I'm going to see Promised Land the Movie in Encinitas, California. From their website the movies seems to be the best documentary on Israeli surfing yet. Very good shots of the waves.

But that may be it.

From the trailer, it seems that there is also this "surfers for peace" element that was done in God Went Surfing With The Devil that didn't really work. It's a cry out into the world that says "if we all could only be surfers then there would be no war."

Of course this is unrealistic and the kind of thing I really wanted to get away from in my book, Surfing the Middle East. I think there is a whole lot more you can do with the Middle East--politically & historically--that give the surf projects actual substance . . . beyond, of course, the shocked of "Wow, you went surfing in the Middle East!?"

We shall see 2mar0 at the screening. If any of you are around, swing on by. Here's the website.


UPDATE: So I went to see the movie last night and here are my thoughts: congratulations to them! Promised Land had AAA-grade cinematography and the strong characters in the film really carried it through. For sure a worthwhile movie. Funny and entertaining, too. The downside was that it was light on story: bring people together through a shared faith of Jewish and American Christian values is a wonderful idea, but it just didn't feel natural in the Middle East. Another thing is that there was a categorical demonetization of everything outside of Israel, and while I laud the movies makers for not making a film of Zionist propaganda (it was indeed a sincere documentary), the fact that there are Palestinian Christians, for example, was untouched at best, neglected at worst. All and all I thought the films limited scope decreased the amount of edgyness . . . but I still think they did a good job. It's the best documentary yet I've seen on Israeli surfing.

10 reasons why Israel attacking Iran would be bad for Israel

The news media shifted this week from the Republican primary (in the US) to Israel and their potential bombing of Iran.

Here, Juan Cole lists the ten reasons why that could be a bad idea for the Israelis.

The first few are well known in the press: regional war, oil prices spike, and Hezbollah rockets. But the last few on the list are less talked about and interesting in that they could be just as dangerous: Shia-led Iraq would be forced to ally with Iran, Assad's Syria and Hezbollah; European liberals would be fast to condemn the attack and would thus block a swift European resolution; Egypt and Turkey may find themselves terminating previous agreements with Israel to save face.

Check out the article. It's a provocative read.

Joshua Landis on Syria - #Assadwillfall (or not)

Oh Syria. What a bummer. People are dying. The government and rebels are showing no sign of a deal. And the UN is at a block: with China and Russia taking the side of the Assad regime, not allowing anything to pass for fear it would be used as a Libya-style intervention down the road. They're wise to be fearful, by the way.

Anyway, its OK to be pessimistic here. It's just that horrible. I still have this voice ringing through my head from some hysterical Syrian guy on NPR today saying: "They're going to kill us all!"

Yes . . . probably dude. Probably.

So beyond my own blues, here is professor Joshua Landis on the matter. This is a really great video to watch. The prof is spot on. In essence, Landis dosn't think #Assadwillfall unless the military defects, or a foreign army intervenes.

Watch Syrian Instability: How Would Rest of World Respond? on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.