, the maker of the phenomenal Shoah, provides in this monumental documentary a different picture of the Jewish people: not of sheep being led to slaughter, but of warriors who take an eye for an eye. The word Tsahal is in Hebrew the acronym of the Israeli armed forces. Through detailed portraits of several officers and soldiers, Lanzmann provides a picture of the Israeli army and seeks an explanation for its self-confidence and military successes. His picture is consciously based, but – as becomes apparent towards the end – certainly not without criticism. As maker of Shoah Lanzmann was given access to parts of the military-industrial complex which would have remained closed to other film-makers. Lanzmann was looking for the thin thread that links the defenceless people of the holocaust with the soldiers of present-day Israel.
