Hitchcock’s ‘Foreign Correspondent,’ Updated for the Mideast War

Europeans calling to convene a Middle East peace conference may become more tethered to reality if they watch an Alfred Hitchcock 1940 masterpiece, “Foreign Correspondent.” The movie, a work of fiction, is far more realistic than Brussel’s Quixotic attempt at using diplomatic means to counter Israel’s strategy of dismantling Hamas militarily. Over a two-day summit of European leaders at Brussels this week, officials agreed to hold a peace conference that, they hope, would end decades of conflict between Israel and Hamas. Initially introduced by Prime Minister Sanchez of Spain, the idea is to launch a peace push six months from now, Mr. Sanchez says. At Turtle bay, the United Nations General Assembly similarly pushed for a “cease fire” over Gaza, even as Israeli tanks rolled in, a precursor for a long-awaited ground invasion into the Hamas-ruled strip. Most Europeans abstained in the UN vote that was opposed by America, Israel, and a handful of others. Mr. Sanchez and his European colleagues can learn a thing or two from the experience of the New York Globe’s foreign correspondent, played in the film by Joel McCrea. Sent to Europe to cover a looming World War II, he falls in love with the daughter of the leader of the Universal Peace Party, played by Laraine Day.It takes a bit for the enterprising reporter to discover that his paramour’s father is a traitor secretly allied with the Nazis.The movie is a reminder that a peace camp is not always well-intentioned and can even abet Nazis intent on genocide — or their modern-day heirs, the Gazan terrorist group Hamas.On the brink of World War II, Johnny Jones, who uses the pen name of Huntley Haverstock for the assignment, travels to Europe to interview Dutch diplomat Van Meer on the pending war. Yet, Mr. Jones ends up uncovering a bigger story: how the leader of a peace group, Stephen Fisher, kidnaps Mr. Van Meer to gain information that would benefit Nazi Germany. “What? Do you mean the man who ran the Universal Peace Party? Well, that’s preposterous,” George Sanders, who plays a British reporter, utters, almost emulating a modern New York Timesman looking at a deadly event at a Gaza hospital.We need not assume Mr. Sanchez currently has the kind of hidden agenda like Mr. Fisher. Yet, it’s hard to rule it out. Or to ignore simply the similarities between the movie character posing as a peace activist and today’s Spaniard’s attempt to stop Israel’s drive to end Hamas’s rule in Gaza.Mr. Sanchez is one of the figures behind Europe’s push for a “humanitarian cease-fire” in Gaza, meant to allow for the “urgent introduction of humanitarian aid” to the strip. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres suggested the same this week. The UN General Assembly passed a similar non-binding resolution Friday, against the wishes of Israel and America. In the Brussels summit Europeans struggled to forge a common language. They spent five hours behind closed doors before finally issuing a joint declaration calling for “humanitarian corridors and pauses for humanitarian needs” to allow aid into Gaza.On Thursday, European leaders agreed that the 27-member bloc “is ready to contribute to reviving a political process on the basis of the two-state solution.” They vowed to promote a diplomatic peace initiative and support “the holding of an international peace conference soon.”If decades of conflict have taught us anything, though, its that no peace can be made while Hamas controls any territory. As Israel Defense Force commanders and officials in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government put the point: “If we do not defeat Hamas, we cannot survive here.”Hamas’s founding charter since its creation in 1987 calls for ending Israel and killing its Jewish population. The October 7 attack was timed to block an American-backed deal to promote a peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia, bringing the petrodollar powerhouse into the Abraham Accords.The European Union foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, says the “cycle of violence” will continue in the future if it’s not stopped. “Peace will not come by itself; it has to be built,” Mr. Borrell writes in a blog post. “The two-state solution remains the only viable one we know. And if we only have one solution, we must put all our political energy into achieving it.”For years America, the UN, the Europeans, and others promoted various peace solutions. All the while Hamas and other Iran proxies, most notably Hezbollah, amassed arsenals of rocketry and other weapons and as they plotted Israel’s destruction. The big story in “Foreign Correspondent” is the one to which Van Meer awakes at the end of the film. The peace camp is hiding the enemy. “There’s no help,” Van Meer realizes, “No help for the whole poor suffering world. You cry peace, Fisher. Peace. And there was no peace. Only war and death.” Until Huntley Haverstock landed the story.

Hitchcock’s ‘Foreign Correspondent,’ Updated for the Mideast War

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