Right Wing Extremists Enraged Over Spielberg's Questioning of Revenge as an End to Terror

From The Observer:

The film will begin with the terrorist attacks. Though German police persuaded the Palestinian terrorists out of the Olympic village, a shoot-out at an airport resulted in the death of all 11 athletes, one policeman and five of the eight terrorists. The main plot of the film then follows the vengeful Mossad teams as they track down members of Black September and eliminate them, one by one. But as the assassinations continue, some of the characters develop doubts about their mission and the moral quagmire of revenge in which they have become trapped...

But the film will place Spielberg firmly back on the rocky ground he tackled with Schindler's List. It will also thrust him into the political spotlight as the film will be seen to deal with the moral issues of how a country responds to a terrorist attack. There will be obvious parallels with current US policy towards al-Qaeda terrorists and especially the use of assassinations and torture in the wake of the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001.

Spielberg himself hinted at the inevitable rows that will dog the film from now until it is released at the end of the year, just in time for Oscar season. 'By experiencing how the implacable resolve of these men to succeed in their mission slowly gave way to troubling doubts about what they were doing, I think we can learn something important about the tragic stand-off we find ourselves in today,' Spielberg said.

Such comments have already outraged some conservative columnists in America, who see Hollywood as a bastion of liberalism. Debbie Schlussel, a right-wing pundit, has blasted Spielberg for being too soft on terrorism and dubbed the project a 'Stockholm Syndrome' movie. 'We don't need more psychobabble about understanding the terrorists and why they hate us. Who cares why they hate us?' she said.