Who Controls the Narrative of October 7?
Hint: it’s not the IDF
As news of the October 7 raids appeared on TV screens thousands of miles away it was hard not to think of the Tet Offensive, an operation that was also supposed to be beyond the capabilities of its author. Again, as in ’68, leaders grimmaced, and bombs fell. All would put back in order. Then Alon Shamriz, Yotam Haim, and Samer Talalka did “everything right” before being gunned down by the people sent to bring them home.
Now we find ourselves with Black September and their raid on Olympic Village during the 1972 Munich Olympics. I was 14 at the time, and I remember the event chiefly as an opportunity to say “fuck” in front of my mother without being reprimanded.
She felt the same way.
Over the years it’s become heresy of a kind to point out that Black September’s primary motive wasn’t to kill Jewish athletes, but rather take hostages in trade for hundreds of Palestinians, Ulrike Meinhof and Andreas Baader. They were prepared to kill, and they did: Yossef Romano and Moshe Weinberg were shot dead in the immediate scuffle.
Nevertheless, taking into account the West German authorities’ lack of preparedness for such a situation—kidnappers watched, along with the rest of the world, on live TV as police converged on their location; snipers had…
