Prisoner in the Middle Review

Prisoner in the Middle stars David Janssen as Tony Stevens, a nuclear weapons expert sent to the Middle East to deactivate a nuclear warhead mistakenly dropped in Mid East soil. He gets caught in between Arab and Israeli factions vying for possession of the bomb.

In the movie, both the Arabs and Israelis are portrayed as being too immature to have possession of nuclear technology. Only the American government and a "small club of nations" are seen as being mature enough to guard and use this type of capability. This despite the fact the American government is the only one to have used a bomb of this magnitude as it did on Japan during WWII.

And in fact, we didn't drop the bombs on Tokyo but on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So why did we target those cities? To my way of thinking, it was all motivated by money. My dad always says kesef medaber or "money talks," in Hebrew. The almighty dollar or yen rules the world. Also said is "money talks and bs walks."

If we had dropped the bomb on Tokyo the world's economy would have been impacted too much. So we chose less critical targets

It seems that nations need to become more closely knit and that is why the UN was created, but at this point in time, it looks like Armageddon has commenced. The question I have is how to defuse all this negativity.

The Israelis originally mistrust Janssen and he falls into the hands of the Palestinian Liberation Army (a take off on the late Yassir Arafat's Palestinian Liberation Organization). Both sides make a toffee pull out of Stevens and he gets caught in a very unsavory situation. Essentially, he is the odd man out.

By the end of the movie, he falls in love with one of the Israeli women and she dies in a hail of gunfire. He is affected by death as this woman told him he would be one day.

Now, you only know me as Guru here but what you don't know is that my father fought in Israel's Milchemet Atzmaut or "War of Independence." My dad adopted a whole host of Israelis who were injured in Israel's subsequent wars and I saw the ravages of war from a very young age.

In addition to that I have Israeli citizenship myself. I also got my Master's degree in Israel and I always wanted to live in peace as a Jew among Jews. I lived in Israel for about 4 and ½ years and I tried to settle permanently but was unsuccessful.

In my youth, I had the very unrealistic vision of world peace. One of my childhood fantasies, as immature as it might seem, was that the whole world would sing and dance together in worship of the Almighty Lord and that day would come when all of mankind would reconcile their problems.

I have a friend named Rabbi Dov Shurin (http://www.dovshurin.com), who is a singing star in Israel. He put out a recording some years ago named Nekama or "Biblical Revenge."

I saw Dov in NY in Brooklyn and I asked him what the whole thing was all about. He replied "its music for our times." I had to agree and it says in Ecclesiastes that there is a time for war and a time for peace. Unfortunately it doesn't take the IQ of Albert Einstein for figure out where we stand today, with bombs and bullets going off all over the world. And the destruction of the World Trade Center also leaves a bad taste on our mouths.

Years ago, I had a conversation with a fried of mine and said, "One of these days, some nut is going to pull the trigger and blow up the whole world!" And the scary thing is that these days we have enough nuclear bombs to accomplish that with ease.

I found out years ago, that 16 Hiroshima level A Bombs if set up in pressure points strategically placed all over the globe can destroy the Earth. Is this what we want to do? To my way of thinking, all of us are God's children and we need family counseling to learn how to deal effectively with our problems.

Years ago, I watched Superman IV - The Quest for Peace starring the late, great Christopher Reeve. Well, I am somewhat immature but tears well up in my eyes as I remember that Superman (whose Kryptonian name, Kal-El is an appellation for divinity. In fact, in the original Superman mythos his adopted earthly parents were Mary and Joseph just like Jesus Christ) managed to convince all the nations of the world to stop stockpiling nuclear weapons. In the movie, this demigod flew into outer space and threw the bombs into the sun and let them blow up harmlessly on old Sol.

In this movie, Superman was successful in talking sense to everyone. But now I don't know who can help in reality.

As I write this tears are coming to my eye and I remember a Jewish belief that when the gates of Shamayim ("Heaven") are closed to everything else, they are open only to tears. I am hoping God will hear my heartfelt prayer and provide a Yeshua ("Salvation") for all of us.

One day, I hope someone manages to convince people to stop killing each other and we will all listen to the wisdom of a leader who can help solve these problems. The Christians believe that Jesus Christ will come back. The Orthodox Jews believe the long awaited redeemer will come and the Moslems believe in a leader called the Mahdi.

Every day I read the paper and I see killings, robbery, and corruption running rampant. I don't see sanity anywhere. Will someone please step forward to lead us?

Some people seem to think that if you don't get caught doing something wrong, you have gotten away with it. Well, in Judaism we talk about 2 types of courts, the Heavenly and the Earthly. If they don't get you down here, forget "beware of dog", it's "beware of God." Everything always evens out.

My late first uncle, Irving Green (author of Judaism on the Web) and I had a talk many years ago. My father is a businessperson and a warrior at heart but my uncle was a Torah scholar and refined person. He told me, "They are not fighting over God. They are fighting over money and property." If my dad had told me that, I would not have listened to him, but since my Uncle told me, I realized it was the truth.

My Uncle also told me, "They take you when you are young and impressionable and they teach you certain concepts..." I have found out that it is very hard to undo your early programming and training.