Oslo

by J. T. Rogers

  QURIE: Some men are like this. So I have heard.

  SAVIR: She says, “Papa, all you care about is being right.” I say, “Maya, if a man does not fight for what he believes, who is he?”

  (Qurie stops. Savir follows suit.

  Behind them, so do Larsen and Mona.)

  QURIE: Maya.

  SAVIR: Yes, my daughter.

  QURIE: My daughter is named Maya. My youngest. She is the light of my life.

  (They stare at each other.

  They start walking again.

  So do Larsen and Mona.)

  SAVIR: I wish my father had lived to see this.

  You and me, here.

  Though he would not have been crazy about the weather.

  QURIE: It is a true tragedy that we were approached by the Norwegians and not the Californians.

  LARSEN: Mona, look at them. My God, they’re smiling!

  MONA: Hang back, Terje, let them be.

  SAVIR: Is your father still with us?

  QURIE: My father lives in Abu Dis, near Jerusalem.

  SAVIR: Do you want me to take a letter to him? Give him a message from you?

  QURIE: No. On the day I am able to leave Tunis and return home, that is the day he and I will speak.

  But thank you.

  (They stop walking.

  So do Larsen and Mona.)

  SAVIR: I want this to work. Shimon wants this to work. More than I can convey.

  QURIE: As does the Chairman. And I.

  MONA: Terje, if you take one step further, I will divorce you.

  QURIE: We cannot escape each other, yours and mine. We are twined. This is our fate.

  SAVIR: Abu Ala, our peoples live in the past—both obsessing over what we have lost.

  Let us find a way to live in the present, together.

  (They stare at each other.

  Mona and Larsen stand frozen, watching.)

  QURIE: We will agree to drop our demand that outstanding quarrels between us be referred to third-party international arbitration.

  SAVIR: And we will agree to negotiate turning over Gaza and Jericho.

  (Moving closer) Now, I will go home and tell Peres that you told me to go fuck myself. You go home and tell Arafat I said the same. Then, in two days, I will have Terje call you and say we agree to your demands.

  QURIE: And I will call him and do the same.

  SAVIR: This way, both our bosses / get a victory.

  QURIE: Yes, yes—we will go home and seduce them.

  Perhaps that is not the correct use of this word.

  SAVIR: My friend, that is exactly what we are going to do.

  (Extending his hand) You and I, Abu Ala, we are going to change the world.

  (Qurie takes Savir’s hand and the two men stand there, eyes locked, hands gripped, as Larsen and Mona watch.)

  ACT THREE

  Joel Singer, forties, wearing a suit and tie, holds a copy of the draft of the DOP.

  SINGER: What the fuck is this?!

  MONA (To us): Joel Singer, decorated veteran of the Israeli army.

  SINGER: Who the fuck negotiated this?!

  MONA (To us): Now, senior law partner in a firm in Washington, DC.

  In diplomacy, when the lawyers are called in, you know it’s serious.

  Jerusalem. Private conference room in the Foreign Ministry.

  Singer, document in hand, stands before Savir and Beilin.

  SAVIR: You try negotiating this.

  SINGER: Negotiate? Uri, this is capitulate!

  BEILIN: It’s a working document.

  SINGER: It’s a fucking Hanukkah present to Yasser Arafat!

  SAVIR (To Beilin): Tell him! Tell him how much better this is, with my involvement.

  (To Singer) Joel, this is after I walked it back. You don’t want to know what we’d agreed to before I got involved.

  SINGER: “Before you got involved”?

  BEILIN: The first drafts were overseen by . . . nongovernmental agents.

  SINGER: Who?

  BEILIN: Two professors. Of economics.

  From Haifa.

  SINGER: Are you fucking serious?!

  BEILIN: Joel, we had to start the process with no official contact.

  There had to be a firewall.

  SINGER: So you picked men who were completely out of their league?

  BEILIN: Joel, when we started this we didn’t even know there was a league. We were fishing in the dark.

  SINGER: I don’t fish, Yossi, and neither should either of you—not with Israel’s national security.

  I mean, for God’s sake—if you are even entertaining the idea of brain surgery, the one thing you do is make sure whoever picks up the knife is an actual fucking surgeon!

  SAVIR: This is what Shimon wanted!

  SINGER: Fuck Shimon! Shimon answers to Yitzhak—just like the rest of us.

  (He holds up the DOP) This flies in the face of forty years of Israeli policy.

  (Flicking through) We turn over control of Gaza and Jericho.

  (Cutting them off before they can speak; reading) “The inclusion of Jerusalem in Palestinian self-rule.”

  SAVIR: These are just talking points / Joel!

  SINGER: Jerusalem.

  Tell me, is that why our grandparents were gassed? So we could do this?

  (The men stare at each other. No one moves.)

  BEILIN: If this is going to work—if—Uri is going to have to walk back a great deal more of what’s written there. We know that. But the potential, Joel. In four months we have gone from not even conceiving of meeting these people—

  (Pointing to the document) to that.

  Forty years, nothing; now, four months, that.

  SAVIR: This is not the same old Palestinian bullshit, Joel. I have sat across from these men for months, negotiating round after round, and I know them. They want this as much as we do.

  SINGER: What these men want is unimportant, Uri. What Yasser Arafat will do is / all that matters.

  SAVIR: Joel. Listen to me.

  Every negotiating round, my counterpart calls Tunis and speaks directly to Arafat. Every point—every concession—these men have made has been signed off on by Arafat.

  (Singer stares at Savir and Beilin. They stare back.)

  SINGER: Who in the government knows this document exists?

  BEILIN: The two of us, and Shimon and Yitzhak.

  SINGER (Shaking his head): It’s written like mush. The janitor in my law firm would have done a better job. Every sentence in here could be read to mean anything. By either side. It’s a fucking time bomb.

  BEILIN: So then defuse it.

  Yitzhak trusts you, and you alone, to do this.

  (Gesturing between Uri and himself) We’re not lawyers, Joel. We need your expertise.

  (Holding up the DOP) Go through this “mush” and figure out if it can be turned into a real, binding document—or not.

  Nothing more can happen between Israel and the PLO unless you tell us it’s a go.

  Borregaard Estate. The reception room.

  Larsen stands before Singer, Savir, Hirschfeld, and Pundak.

  Thor and Trond are off to the side. Toril is there as well.

  LARSEN (To Singer): And how was your flight? Uneventful I hope?

  SINGER: It was fine.

  LARSEN: You must be famished.

  (Gesturing to her) Toril here has prepared a simple but delicious repast.

  SINGER: We’re fine.

  LARSEN: A drink then!

  We shall all have a glass of—

  SINGER: We don’t need food. And we don’t need drinks.

  (Finn enters.

  He gestures to Larsen: “They’re here.”)

  LARSEN: Ah! Wonderful!

  Our other guests have just arrived.

  SAVIR (To Singer, in Hebrew): [Joel. Show respect. These men have earned it.]

  (Mona enters, bringing in Qurie and Asfour.

  Qurie sees the Israelis and stops.)

  QURIE: Ah. Y
ou are all here.

  (To Larsen) Already.

  (Then, to the Israelis) Shalom, my friends!

  PUNDAK (Steps forward): Salaam alaikum, Abu Ala!

  (Singer looks at Pundak. Pundak steps back.)

  SAVIR (Formal): Abu Ala, Hassan, it is my great pleasure to introduce you to—

  SINGER: They know who I am. And I know who they are. We don’t have time for chitchat.

  (Staring at Qurie) I have read the text of the joint document created here, and I have come with two hundred questions about this document.

  QURIE: We reject your questions as we reject your tone.

  SINGER: These questions come directly from Yitzhak Rabin. I am here at his personal request. When you are speaking to me, you are speaking to the Prime Minister of Israel.

  (No one moves as this sinks in—news to everyone but Savir and Singer.

  Qurie gestures to Savir: “Is this true?”

  Savir gestures back: “Yes.”)

  I have until oh-six-hundred hours. We’ll need to work through the night.

  LARSEN: As you wish.

  SINGER: We’re wasting time. Let’s get started.

  (To the professors) Not you two. You’ve done enough.

  HIRSCHFELD: But . . . Uri has assigned us the task of taking minutes.

  SINGER: Your task is to do what you’re told.

  If Uri or I need you, we’ll send for you.

  (Hirschfeld and Pundak stand rooted as they watch Singer, Savir, and Qurie enter the negotiating room.)

  HIRSCHFELD: First we are demoted, now we are exiled?

  LARSEN: Yair, I know / this must be difficult.

  HIRSCHFELD: I do not accept this! Do you hear me?

  LARSEN: / Lower your voice, please.

  HIRSCHFELD: They would not even be in that room without us! We are the ones who started this. We took the risks! This is what we get? Well fuck them!

  (Hirschfeld starts toward the negotiating room.)

  LARSEN (Blocking his way): Yair. / Listen to me.

  HIRSCHFELD: I will not be discarded / like some piece of trash!

  LARSEN: Breathe! Breathe for me!

  THIS IS NOT ABOUT YOU!

  (Hirschfeld stops struggling.

  No one moves.)

  PUNDAK: Yair, let’s go for a walk.

  A little fresh air, yah?

  (A moment. Hirschfeld nods.

  Mona gestures to Trond: “Go keep an eye on them.”

  As Hirschfeld and Pundak head for the front door . . .)

  LARSEN: Remember, my friends: sometimes we are the pigeon, sometimes we are the statue.

  (The two men stare at him. Then they exit with Trond.)

  ASFOUR: Comrade Terje, do you know who this man is?

  Joel Singer is the man who wrote the military rules of engagement the Zionist army use to crush our people.

  We are now in the boat with the enemy himself.

  (Asfour enters the negotiating room and closes the door. Larsen and Mona stare at each other.)

  MONA: So, what do you think?

  LARSEN: I think this is beyond anything we could have ever imagined.

  In the negotiating room.

  Singer and Qurie facing each other; Savir and Asfour watching.

  Singer holds a folder with paperwork in his hands.

  SINGER: Each of these two hundred questions requires a specific, precise answer. When I am satisfied with your answer, we will move on to the next question.

  (He looks down at his paperwork then looks up)

  If the State of Israel agrees to cede control of Jericho and its surrounding territory, will the proposed Palestinian Authority collect Israeli garbage, or only Palestinian garbage?

  (Qurie and Asfour look at each other. Then Qurie turns back to Singer.)

  QURIE: This is your question?

  SINGER: This is my first question.

  QURIE: . . . No.

  We will not collect Israeli garbage.

  SINGER: If the State of Israel agrees to cede control of Jericho and its surrounding territory, will the proposed Palestinian Authority be prepared to send tax collectors into Israeli settlements?

  QURIE: Mr. Singer. We did not fly across the world to talk of garbage and taxes.

  SINGER: Garbage and taxes is what a government does. If you want us to give you the authority to be a government, then this joint document must spell out exactly how you will be a government.

  (The men stare at each other.)

  QURIE: The collecting of Israeli settler taxes will be carried out, and financed, by Israel itself.

  (Singer makes a note. He looks back up.)

  SINGER: Now, as to education.

  Will the proposed Palestinian Authority be in charge of teaching Israeli settler children, and, if so, what specific curricula will you teach them?

  MONA (To us): All night they worked. All night, question by question, Singer pushed for clarity.

  QURIE: I must speak with Tunis. I require a phone.

  (Qurie exits with Trond, as . . .

  Singer paces. Savir sits nearby. Asfour sits away from them, watching.

  Mona enters with a tray of coffee and coffee cups.)

  MONA: We have coffee for everyone.

  May I get anyone anything else?

  SINGER (Gesturing off): You can get that one out there off the fucking phone.

  (To Asfour) How many times is he going to do this? We’ve already lost an hour and a half.

  (To Savir, in Hebrew) [At this rate, we’re not going to get through the questions.]

  SAVIR (Hebrew back): [Joel. Don’t worry. We’ll figure it out.]

  (As Mona pours coffee . . .)

  MONA: Might you be able to extend your visit, Mr. Singer?

  SINGER: No. I have to be in Israel tomorrow to brief Yitzhak, then back in DC by tomorrow night.

  I told my firm I had to go to my grandmother’s funeral in Tel Aviv. At least in death the woman’s proving useful.

  Why are you doing this, you and your husband?

  MONA: If you were in our shoes, wouldn’t you?

  SINGER: No. That’s why I’m asking.

  MONA: If you have to ask, Mr. Singer, you wouldn’t understand my answer.

  Outside the room, Trond approaches Larsen.

  TROND: Terje, may I have a moment?

  LARSEN: Of course, Trond.

  TROND: I understand our role here, but I think you should know . . .

  (Close, just for him) Whenever Abu Ala goes to use the phone and call Tunis? He does not call Tunis.

  LARSEN: Who does he call?

  TROND: No one.

  He sits, staring at the wall. When enough time for a phone call has passed, he comes back in with “new instructions.”

  (Larsen stares at him. Then:)

  LARSEN: I see.

  Thank you.

  (As Trond starts to leave . . .)

  Trond.

  This is just between you and me, yes?

  Don’t worry Mona with this. I’ll take care of it.

  Back in the negotiating room.

  Ashtrays full. Ties loosened. Nerves frayed.

  MONA (To us): Into the morning hours they pushed on.

  The scope and complexity of the issues, expanding with each and every question.

  SINGER: Will the governing structure overseeing Gaza and Jericho be centralized or decentralized?

  QURIE: Our governing structure will be as it is in the DOP.

  SINGER: It’s not in the DOP. That’s why I’m asking. Centralized or decentralized?

  ASFOUR: Centralized. With executive and legislative branches.

  (Singer stares at Asfour. He stares back.)

  SINGER (To Asfour): The phrase “Israeli settlements abutting the city of Jericho” is vague and imprecise. Which settlements, and what are their exact boundaries?

  ASFOUR: Settlements and boundaries as per Article Four, page thirty-two, of the working document of the official Washington talks.

  SINGER: Show me t
he language of this document.

  ASFOUR: My copy of this document resides here. (Touches his temple) Your copy is your business.

  MONA (To us): And then the question on which all other points hinged.

  SINGER: Are you willing to state herein that you recognize the legitimacy of the State of Israel?

  (Silence.

  Qurie and Asfour look at each other. Qurie turns back to Singer.)

  QURIE: We will agree, in this document, to accept the existence of the State of Israel.

  SINGER: “Existence” and “legitimacy” are not synonymous.

  QURIE: “Existence” is the precise word we have chosen.

  SINGER: We know we exist. And we know you see that we exist. What this document requires is for you to acknowledge the legitimacy of our existence.

  (No one moves.)

  QURIE: Mr. Singer, when you are willing to state herein that the Palestine Liberation Organization is the official voice of the Palestinian people—then we will revisit your legitimacy.

  (The four men stare at each other. Singer and Savir share a look.)

  SAVIR (To Singer, in Hebrew): [They’ve given us enough. For now. Make the offer.]

  (Singer turns back to the Palestinians. He closes his folder.)

  SINGER: Your answers to my questions were clear and direct. For which you have our thanks and our respect. On behalf of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the State of Israel, we make this offer: that this back channel will become the official channel.

  (Silence. No one moves.)

  QURIE: But what of the Washington-sponsored talks?

  SINGER: They will continue and no one involved in those talks will know that what they are doing is now nothing but a ruse.

  If those of us in this room cannot reach an agreement, we do not deserve one.

  (Gesturing to Qurie and Savir) You two will negotiate it. (Gesturing to Asfour) You and I will write it.

  In this room, we four will forge a peace, or there will be no peace.

  Larsen and Savir alone.

  LARSEN: Uri. My God.

  This this this is amazing.

  SAVIR: I know.

  LARSEN: Mona and I—we had no inkling this was even a possibility.