Not a Mensch

I don't know how many of you have seen HBO's House of Saddam. I really didn't know what to expect from a mini-series about Saddam Hussein. There are so many obvious pitfalls, it's hard to know where to start. But it's actually really, really good. And the portrayal of Saddam is actually surprisingly sympathetic, at least sympathetic in the broader context of mass-murdering dictators. (And no, that's not just ironic snark -- I'll try to elaborate in a subsequent post about what I liked about it.)

But if you watch the credits one funny or ironic or just (for me) hard to forget things about drama is that Saddam is played by an Israeli (Igal Naor), something that must sit fabulously well with Arab nationalists.

Dan Ephron explains the larger phenomenon of Israelis so often playing Arabs on the big screen.