This year we are celebrating Israel’s 60th anniversary, and moviemakers are finally getting around to joining the celebration. "Golda’s Balcony" opened Wednesday at New York’s Quad Cinema, and Elie Chouraqui’s "O Jerusalem" opens today at the Village East Cinema in New York. Thorold Dickinson’s 1955 "Hill 24 Doesn’t Answer" is being screened next month at the JCC on the Palisades.

There have been few films made by Hollywood’s filmmakers about Israel or the birth of the state. Edward Dmytryk explored the plight of a Holocaust survivor in Israel in his powerful 1953 film, written by Michael Blankfort and starring Kirk Douglas. One can hardly forget Otto Preminger’s adaptation of Leon Uris’ "Exodus" in 1960, which starred Paul Newman and Eva Marie Saint. "Exodus" provided something, albeit short-lived, that previous subject films on Jews had not — an attractive, strong and bold Jewish presence. Paul Newman’s Ari Ben Canaan is handsome, blue-eyed, and muscular. Then there was Melville Shavelson’s 1966 "Cast A Giant Shadow," which included Kirk Douglas, John Wayne, Yul Brynner, and Frank Sinatra in its cast. It focused on David "Mickey" Marcus, the American officer who was brought to Israel to help systematize the new Israel Defense Forces as war broke out in 1948. Each of the latter two films celebrated the birth of Israel, and although there was sacrifice and death in each, both left one feeling good about the Jewish state and proud to be a Jew.

By 1967, possibly after losing its underdog status in the Six Day War that year, Israel stopped being a popular subject for American moviemakers. Here and there, a filmmaker made a movie about Israel — such as John Flynn’s unsympathetic 1972 "The Jerusalem File" or Costa-Gavras’ controversial 1983 "Hanna K." There were also a couple of films about Operation Entebbe, chronicling the 1976 hostage rescue mission by Israeli commandos. However, in "post-Entebbe" times, dealing with Israel was found to be either too controversial or irrelevant to an American audience. Maybe that is partly why "O Jerusalem," the best-selling Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre 1972 novel, took over 30 years to become a movie.

"O Jerusalem" tries to provide an even-handed telling of the birth of Israel in 1948. The story centers on two men who meet and become close friends in post-World War II New York: One is a New York Jew, the other a Jerusalem-born Muslim. The filmmakers have 103 minutes to connect the two and weave their story through the events of the time, and, unfortunately, what we are presented with is a disjointed and choppy picture.

Bobby Goldman is a World War II veteran who was one of the first soldiers to enter a Nazi concentration camp. Said Chahin is an Arab in New York busy studying law. The filmmaker does not make a clear enough case of how and why the two become inseparable friends, but before you know it, they both find themselves in Palestine as the United Nations votes in November 1947 for partition.

Throughout the next year or so, they will continually come into contact with each other as each is drawn into opposite camps as enemies. Despite a lack of fluidity, director Chouraqui does a masterful job of incorporating documentary footage and methodically laying out the events that lead to Ben Gurion’s declaration of statehood in May 1948, as well as the War of Liberation that followed. In one fine moment, we see Jordanian and Iraqi troops literally marching over black and white documents of the period. To be sure, there are many such fine moments.

Elie Chouraqui shows the stuff of a good director. He also does a great job playing the minor role of Isaac Roth. Both J.J. Field and Said Taghmaoui are fine as the major protagonists. Ian Holm not only looks the part, he also does a fine job as Ben Gurion — as does Tovah Feldshuh as Golda — though we do not see enough of her. Chouraqui’s direction is strong and creative, but the weakness of the film is its writing and editing. There are many moments when you question the veracity of the script. I literally shook when one of the characters standing on Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives points to the vistas he sees of Jerusalem "like the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Western Wall." The last time I checked, one cannot see the Western Wall from that vantage point. There were also awful mispronunciations of Hebrew that simply do not belong in a movie made today. Too many times the script would call for the arrival of someone so that they could be told of the death of a loved one. More often than not, these scenes did not work, just as the occasional encounters between Bobby and Said often seemed contrived.

"O Jerusalem" tells the story of Israel and is a film that you want to love. Many viewers will forgive the film’s flaws and cry and rejoice at the appropriate moments. I so desperately wanted to.

Jeremy Kagan directed "The Chosen" in 1981 and was brought in to adapt the William Gibson play, "Golda’s Balcony," for cinema. His is a fascinating adaptation of the one-woman show, and Kagan deserves kudos for a job well done. The story begins as Golda Meir is awakened at 4 a.m. to ponder what steps might be taken as she learns that Egypt is amassing its tanks along the Sinai border and Syria is readying its assault on the Golan Heights. Kagan uses a variety of techniques to introduce photographs and footage as background to Golda telling her life story. She does so while deliberating with her generals about what her next move should be as prime minister during Israel’s Yom Kippur War of 1973. Valerie Harper is masterful as Golda, and Kagan keeps us actively watching and following her every word. "Golda’s Balcony" may not be a dynamic narrative, but it is fine filmed theater for all of us who adore Golda.

Then there is the tried-and-true, though a bit soppy, "Hill 24 Doesn’t Answer," made in 1955. This black-and-white film, which was Israel’s first feature-length film, still brings tears to my eyes, as viewers watch the forced exile of Jerusalem’s Jews from the Jewish Quarter. The film stars Edward Mulhare, Michael Wager, Arik Lavi, and Margalit Oved as four Israelis who are sent to Hill 24 to protect the road to Jerusalem, as a cease-fire is about to go into effect. On the way to their mission, each tells his story. One is a former British policeman who fell in love with an Israeli (Haya Harareet). The second is an American Jew who finds himself touring the area at the "wrong time." The third is a sabra, and the fourth is a woman from Yemen. Their stories are most compelling, and the musical score by Paul Ben Haim is superb.

The making of both "O Jerusalem" and "Golda’s Balcony" at least signals a desire to tackle on film Israel’s story for a new generation. This is a good start for a year celebrating Israel’s 60th.