Released in 2011, The Promise is a four part BBC drama centered in and around Israel. (There is a very good synopsis of each episode at the link.) OH, and there’s a spoiler or two here as well, so read at your own risk.

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Mike and I watched this series on Hulu over the course of the last month. At first it seemed very interesting; a British soldier in post WWII British controlled Palestine juxtaposed with his current day 18 year old grand-daughter traveling to Israel with her best friend. Grand-daughter had gotten hold of grandpa’s war time diary and as she reads, we get a glimpse of his life as a soldier.

Now. These are just my impressions based purely on the movie.

It had a strong start, but went to hell pretty quickly as we learned that the poor Palestinians were driven from their homes to make way for the bloodthirsty interlopers, the Jews. Before the Jews came, the soil was fertile, there were orange groves! Now, nothing but sand. [Insert sad face here.]

The Jews were so evil that they prostituted their women to British soldier as spies, blew up British soldiers and even callously shot some, just for being there.

Present day Jews are portrayed as being rich [yes, all of them], shallow, thieving, lying assholes. And in a twist even Hitler would approve, most of them seem to be blonde haired and blue eyed.

The Palestinians… well, I’m glad you asked. They’re none of them wealthy, all dirt poor. And I do mean dirt. They’ve had everything stripped from them; their homes, lives, etc… Their children can’t walk to school without being spat upon by evil Jews. They’re also deep, philosophical thinkers, kind people who would give you the shirt off their back – if the Jews had left them one… a friendly, hospitable people who welcome all visitors with open arms and unquestioning acceptance.

We learn all these things as the grand-daughter does; they are made obvious as she goes about her mission to find her grand-father’s Palestinian friends so that she might return a key. See, grandpa went awol helping his persecuted Palestinian friends back in the day and yada yada yada, by the end of the series, aided by a Palestinian friend of her own (Christian, of course!), grand-daughter had found the beloved family and returned the key, going back and forth in Gaza like she owned the place. Only in literature or film can a clueless 18 year old be so brave… or stupid.

She then [after being shot at herself and nearly blown up because Jews can't help themselves, they must blow things up] returned home to England to tell Gramps she fulfilled his life’s wish of returning the key and of course he promptly expired.

This sort of bias is dishearteningly effective; before I got hold of myself [Ep 2 of 4] even I was becoming a little fed up with the evil Jews! Made me wonder how many people watched this series and others like it… and how many believe it portrays reality. Scary thought!