Yariv Mozer-We Will Dance Again
As a Christian, I have no bias towards either side in the Palestinian and Israeli conflict that has been raging since 1948. I grew up on the same street as a family of Palestinians. I have many fond memories of the shenanigans and hijinks of youth when all we did was ride bikes, play baseball, and pull pranks without a care in the world about anything else, and had a blast doing it.
In Westlake, where I grew up, there was no strong contingency of Jewish people in our community. Conversely speaking there actually was a greater population of Middle Eastern Arabs that we went to school with. As is expected when differing cultures are forced to mesh within a system, there was a bit of friction here and there, but looking back on my High School days I have no recollections painted with anger or Malice against the Arabs I went to school with.
Up until I got a job in the Casino industry the only Jewish person I had had direct contact with was my Elementary Music School teacher Mrs. Rudolph. There were a few acquaintances here and there, but nobody else until I met Andy in Westland, Michigan at the Casino Dealer College.
Andy was by far the sharpest tack of all the students who had attended the college a few months before me and was already in the academy at MGM (the casino where I would eventually get my first job as a blackjack dealer in September of 2007). So advanced was Andy's perception of casino dealing that he was called upon to teach the classes to us newcomers mere months after he had gotten his certificates. We were dazzled at his ability to correctly call the highs and lows of 9 Omaha High-lo hands (absent of face cards) in 45 seconds flat and when he stepped up to bat at the blackjack table the cards flew from the shoe with perfect placement and every bet was paid and taken without any hesitation and settled correct and accordingly.
*A task that took me over three weeks to get correct in under two minutes.*
Andy mentioned off and on about his being Jewish and how his Grandmother still had the numbers tattooed on her skin from her days as a concentration camp prisoner. But other than his open admission of heritage/religion I would have never known he was Jewish lest he said so. I was at MGM for three years and worked with Andy on swing shift for the duration of my time there and remember him fondly as a good guy to work with.
Aside from Andy two of my favorite hip hop artists from the early 00's were Necro and Ill Bill. Jewish brothers from the Canarsie section of Brooklyn who brought some serious heat to the Hip Hop game and elevated my musical palate beyond the primitive scope of Insane Clown Posse and their flunky replicates (Twiztid, Blaze, Anybody Killah, etc.).
In April 2020, during the pandemic, I took the time to invest in my relationship with God and delivered myself wholly over to the hands of Christ. I read the New Testament and several devotionals then finished The Holy Bible (for the first time) shortly thereafter. I became very interested in the roots of Christianity and wanted to know more. In April of 2022, I saw a flier on the bulletin board of our church advertising a presentation that would stop anyone the least bit knowledgeable about religion in their tracks: Jews for Jesus.
Hmm, this juxtaposition sounds interesting I thought to myself.
I took down the date and attended the event and am very glad that I did. The presenter (whose name I unfortunately forget) who was from Jerusalem gave a great presentation on Jewish culture and explained the feasts of Israel and the traditions of prayer and partaking of various foods on the night of Passover. Once he finished a hasty reproduction of each station of the feast (there are 6) and the hiding of the matzah he explained how every act pointed directly to Christ as being the King of the Jews. King of Kings. The Messiah. There were several points he made but the one that stuck out to me the most was about how the unleavened matzah was pierced with holes and was not to be broken on the Passover.
"If you notice how it is pierced and forbidden to be broken, think of how Christ was pierced for our sins and notice that not one of his bones was broken during the crucifixion. Also, during Levitical times, any animal sacrificed at the Tabernacle was deemed unacceptable if it had any broken bones," He said. (loosely paraphrased)
He then began to explain how incredibly difficult it is to preach the Gospel of Christ in Israel as He, still to this day, is vehemently rejected as the Jewish Messiah. The New Testament is incredibly difficult to get your hands on and merchants who attempt to sell Holy Bibles are subject to intense harassment and often have their tables flipped over or vandalized.
Before this presentation, I was completely oblivious to these facts of life.
Fast forward to October 7th, 2023.
I was at Cedar Point waking up with a tremendous hangover after a night of stupidly mixing wine with sugary zombie-influenced liquor-laden cocktails and also hitting an incredibly potent vape that sent me off into what felt like another solar system I was so high. When I crawled down from the loft of the cabin we had rented to upchuck for the second time the television was on and I saw breaking news reports that violence had once again erupted in the Middle East. That Hamas had launched a massive coordinated attack upon Israel and was deliberately targeting civilians and filming the whole macabre escapade as if it were a game of Call of Duty.
That's what you get for electing weak leadership I thought to myself before crawling back up into the bunk to try and sleep the rest of my hangover away.
This act of revenge—funded by Iran and egged on by its other neighbors who act out their hatred towards Israel vicariously through Palestine—set off a string of unfathomable violence and shocking reaction that persists with every letter I type on this review.
Much like the witless demonizing of Police Officers and embracement of fraud organization Black Lives Matter, Marxist influencer opportunists saw the tumult as yet another window to reach out and grab a fresh round of malleable recruits into their fold and latched onto the liberation of Palestine from the draconian grip of Jewish oppression until it was no longer the trendy thing to do. Overnight, those who claimed to hate racism in all its forms granted immunity to anti-semitism and protests erupted at colleges, malls, public streets, and Christmas tree lightings en masse where transgenders shouted along with Palestinians and soy boys to "Free, Free Palestine!" In hopes that—a refuge nation that would castrate and hang them if they ever set foot on the West Bank—would take back the land that was theirs.
Anyways.
In the documentary, We Will Dance Again.
On the morning of October 7th, 2023. 6,000 miles away from Sandusky, Ohio, sun rays peeked over the crest of the Negev desert in the Eshkol Regional Council in Israel, and those who had stayed up through the night to party along with the DJs who performed at the Supernova Music Festival, screamed and leaped with joy as the DJ who was spinning, synchronized a massive drop to welcome the dawn of a new day upon the trance community.
Ecstacy and alcohol surged through the veins of the partygoers as the beat thumped and they hugged and continued to dance, planning only to stop when exhaustion decreed so.
It was then that the tremors of forthcoming madness began to cascade across the sky.
Thin strings of pearl white pierced through the blue blanket of the atmosphere and alarms followed shortly thereafter. Here, in such close proximity to the West Bank of the Gaza Strip, natives were used to the sight of RPGs floating through the air at a rapid speed. But the Iron Dome of Israel's defense system was so secure, that, usually, nothing ever became of them other than a glorified fireworks display.
The dancers deduced the many strings high above as nothing more than political streamers stemming from a conflict that had nothing to do with them and continued dancing.
But it didn't take but thirty minutes to pass before it became realized that this was not an ordinary attack. The music stopped abruptly and people began to regather with their groups to decide on the best maneuver going forward.
Some stayed, hoping to wait out the failed attack, while others went to their vehicles to hopefully make it out before a traffic jam trapped them in gridlock.
Cut to the other side of the bank where body camera footage is shown of Palestinian warriors prepping for an invasion. Massive piles of weaponry are scattered about. Engines roar as tactical vehicles march towards the fence. Cheers erupt as a bulldozer creates a breach.
"Allah is good! All Praise to Allah! He smiles upon his warriors!"
Footage from this point forward alternates between those at the festival who recorded the timeline with their cellphones and the terrorists who are broadcasting the events live on Al Jezzerah from their body cameras.
From this point forward there are insufficient words, within my lexicon, to describe the horror that unfolds.
"Kill them all! Every dead dog is a tribute to Allah!"
Innocent partygoers scramble to escape in their vehicles or attempt to conceal themselves in every way possible and are mercilessly pierced with hollow-point rounds at point-blank range. Lifeless bodies are strewn across the festival grounds that, just a few hours prior, hosted a community of dancers rejoicing through the innocent conduit of music. Cars are strewn across the road on both sides of the street, smoking and riddled with bullet holes. Women are dragged by their hair across dirt pavement and tossed into truck beds like Ragdolls. Kidnapped as human commodities for a future hostage exchange. Most are never seen again.
We only get the survivors' accounts, but along the way, we are disprivileged to see those who didn't make it futilely throw grenades back at Hamas from concrete bomb shelters and make fruitless beggings for their lives to pitiless shooters who see only an easy target and walk up and perform executions on unarmed civilians as if they are playing a video game.
The exhausting account ends with testimony from teary-eyed survivors and then harrowing statistics are shown at the end. We also become privy to the fate of several other attendees we were introduced to earlier in the midst of the show whose expiration we were not shown.
The film ends by showing a grand collage of all of the victims while also acknowledging that this is only one side of the story, which gives weight to the Palestinian argument that this retaliation is only a pebble of reprisal in comparison to the 75+ years of genocide they have endured at the hand of Israel's Imperialism.
***
Once accepting an invitation from Satan to sit at the table of madness and feast, man's appetite is, without question, unparalleled.
I have seen many documentaries/recreations of the most heinous moments in mankind's history where we sunk to the lowest abyss of our bowel system.
Some are necessary to maintain an honest ledger of our history and some as mere fodder for complete sickos.
Come and See, Faces of Death, Men Behind The Sun, Schindler's List, Salo: 120 Days of Sodom, and The Pianist come to mind. But nothing was as genuinely revolting and disturbing as We Will Dance Again.
*Maybe "Children of Beslan", which accounts for the Chechnyan terrorist siege of an Elementary School in Beslan. Which ended horribly.*
In Children of Beslan, we are given grainy footage of terrorists that look like hazy blobs with black hoods on and witness the atrocities take place from a safe distance, only hearing the sound of the explosions and proceeding gunshots, leaving our imagination to pick up the rest of the macabre slack.
In We Will Dance Again, we are not only provided with crystal clear High Definition executions but we are first endeared to the victims through their various interactions and explained the details of their friendships through direct testimony at the camera from around 17 different people.
This was a very depressing documentary to watch. One that I found myself needing a good 5 minutes afterward to recollect as the tears were flowing very heavily.
I can't speak for the general populace of Palestinians, nor, in my heart of hearts, universally condemn an entire nation of people for the actions of a select brainwashed sector. But, no matter what, nobody should have to endure what was perpetrated upon the innocent people at the Supernova Festival. Much like the children of Beslan, who woke up on September 1st of 2004 only wishing to go to school and learn, and received a bullet for their innocent longings, so too did the attendees inflict the same amount of harm upon the world in their innocent wishes.
Which is none.
There are never any winners when it comes to war. Especially when all rules of engagement follow the credo of an eye for an eye. As Ghandi (allegedly) once said "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."
This doco does not attempt to pull you as the viewer onto one side of the sympathy scale versus the other. At least I didn't think so. And merely attempts to serve as a memorial for the victims of the atrocities which unfurled that day. But depending upon your viewpoint you may disagree with me on that opinion.
I have seen widespread condemnation of the acts of that day and also support for the Al-Qassam brigades who view October 7th as a prison break.
For me, I see everything through a Biblical lens, and October 7th serves as another stepping stone on a path of prophecy foretold by Jesus himself:
Matthew 24: 6-13
"6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.
9 Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved."
Verse 13 is where I try to stand.
It is tempting to attempt to decipher what is unfolding in the world, but I feel as if it is a futile effort. Sometimes I dip into the wonderment of acts such as what happened on October 7th as God's continual punishment against the rebellious spirit of His chosen people for their obstinate rejection of Jesus as their savior. As anyone who has read The Bible can attest, God was not shy about handing over the Israelites to their enemies when such a punishment was merited. The Egyptians, Romans, Canaanites, and Babylonians among many other kingdoms enslaved the Jews for thousands of years. Perhaps things like the Munich massacre, October 7th, and The Holocaust serve as God's warnings to his people.
But these are pointless ponderings.
Who is to say except for God Himself? For those are His affairs, not mine. My job is to love the Lord thy God with all my heart and spirit and to love my neighbor as myself, so I try to do that the very best that I can.
Judaism's widespread persecution, from virtually all walks of life, is unparalleled. But such condemnation shall never come from me.
That I can proudly say.
Before I conclude with positive stars and a recommendation to watch this movie, I must forewarn any who tread forth to be prepared. This is an extremely graphic documentary that will leave you very empty after having watched it. But is also very good as well.
Just be careful and know what is in store.
Stars: ****1/2
Verdict: Watch
Cousins: Children of Beslan, Come and See, City of God, Climax