Morality and the Oscars

I usually don't pay attention to the Oscar Awards. This year, I am paying attention to the foreign film nominations. There are five up for nomination.

Sophie Scholl - The Final Days This film tells of the interrogations that Sophie Scholl underwent by the Gestapo for her involvement in an anti-war group called the White Rose.

Tsoti This one is about a African youth who is trying to get away from the gangs and redeem his life.

Joyeux Noel This one is about Christmas Eve in 1914 and how the soldiers who have been facing each other with guns try to bring a few brief moments of peace.

Don't TellThis is the story of a young woman who starts remember how her father molested her when she was a young girl and tries to learn the truth about her family history.

These are all wonderful stories about how individuals try to bring some peace and justice into their lives. Which brings me to the 5th nomination:

Paradise Now

Does the glorification of suicide bombers really belong with those other films of redemption? No, it doesn't. Suicide bombers are evil. There is no ambiguity about it. They seek to destroy the lives of Israeli teenagers, mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters and infants. They are vile, cowardly, and murdering.

Any attempt to portay them as anything but terrorists who do not value life, cheapens life. There is no morality in this film being nominated. Suicide bombers do not care who their victims are. They do not care if their victims are on a bus, in a school, at a shopping mall, at a pizza parlor, or a hospital. Their one goal is to kill and maim as many Israelis as possible. I'll put a question to you, would you watch a film that tried to justify Mengele, the SS, Goering, Hitler, or any other Nazi? So, why should the those who seek to kill as many innocents as possible have a film nominated that seeks to justify their actions? The saddest thing that was learned about those who perpetrated the Shoah was yes, they did have a human face. Does that mean that their actions were any less evil? No. Those who embarked on the Final Solution made a clear choice and chose the path of evilness and inhumanity.

Suicide bombers who train and prepare themselves for their evil acts also make a choice. They too chose evil. There are no moral grounds for their training, preparation, and acts of evil.

What does it say about the morals of those who nominate a film that glorifies the evil of suicide bombers?