To say that Steven Spielberg’s “Munich” has been a hot topic of controversy during this awards season is putting it mildly. But one person who hasn’t been heard from is George Jonas, author of the book, “Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team,” on which Spielberg’s film is based.

According to Jonas, he was never shown the "Munich" script during its many incarnations. Nor did he speak to any screenwriters or to Spielberg, even after the production was finally greenlit in spring 2005. His sole contact has been "Munich" producer Barry Mendel, who had initially contacted Jonas in July 1998, asking about film rights to the book. When Mendel called in spring 2005 to tell Jonas that filming was moving to Budapest, Hungary, Jonas offered his help, saying Budapest is his native city.

"Help? Maybe you can recommend some restaurants,” was Mendel’s reply.

Jonas had planned to see "Munich" at the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. screening on Dec. 6. When Mendel heard this, he called Jonas to ask if he would consider not going, promising a private showing instead. Jonas agreed, and Universal Studios set things up at the Varsity Theatre in Toronto on Dec. 7.

Jonas understood the producer’s hesitancy. In a revealing and provocative personal piece titled “The Spielberg Massacre” written for MacLean’s, a leading Canadian weekly news magazine, he writes, “There's no telling how an author might react to the Hollywood version of his book under the best of circumstances, and here the circumstances may not be the best. The sixty or so voters for the Golden Globes will be at the L.A. screening. The producers don 't want to take a chance that I might rain on Spielberg's parade.”

His thoughts after seeing the film? "Moral posturing allows you to have it both ways. In Tinseltown terms, after the gunslinger blows everyone away, he has a proper crisis of conscience."

Did his “Vengeance” source, “Avner” (not his real name), really have a moral crisis, as he did in “Munich?” “Avner may have questioned the futility of his mission toward the end — targeted assassinations barely slowed down terrorism, let alone stopped it — but he never questioned the morality of what his country had asked him to do. He had no pangs of guilt.”

On the difference between "Vengeance" and Spielberg’s movie: “'Munich' follows the letter of my book closely enough,” he writes. “The spirit is almost the opposite. 'Vengeance' holds there is a difference between terrorism and counterterrorism; 'Munich' suggests there isn't. The book has no trouble telling an act of war from a war crime; the film finds it difficult. Spielberg 's movie worries about the moral trap of resisting terror; my book worries about the moral trap of not resisting it.”

Does he think Spielberg should not get an Oscar for not solving the problems of the Middle East?

“Spielberg should get an Oscar for making 'Munich,' the gritty Hollywood flick. For not solving the problems of the Middle East, he should get a Nobel Peace Prize, like everyone else.”