“Israel’s two nominees for Best Documentary shared the same Oscar fate on Sunday night, elbowed aside in favor of “Searching for Sugar Man.”

‘The Gatekeepers’ and ‘5 Broken Cameras’ have shared the same critical fate too, at least among some on the right, who have branded them both anti-Israeli and lamented funding and any other state assistance provided to the filmmakers.

But these two ostensibly similar films — both grappling at heart with aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; both questioning Israel’s approach to handling and solving that conflict — couldn’t be more different.

One of them is cheap, predictable, utterly lacking in self-criticism, honesty, or self-awareness — a relentless battering of Israel that reeks of familiar Palestinian victimhood. The other is a credit to everything that is best about the Jewish state — a testament to Israeli decency and introspection in the face of a sometimes heartless enemy.

One of them underlines why no accommodation with the Palestinians is remotely likely in the foreseeable future. The other shows why Israel must do everything in its power to work toward such an accommodation.”

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