The Empty Chair

The Honourable Woman 1×1

& Nessa: Who do you trust?.. How do you know?.. By how they appear... or what they say?.. What they do?.. How?

& Nessa: We all have secrets. We all tell lies, just to keep them... from each other... and from ourselves. But sometimes... rarely... something can happen that leaves you no choice... but to reveal it. To let the world see who you really are. Your secret self..... But mostly, we tell lies. We hide our secrets from each other, from ourselves. And the easiest way to do this is not to even know what you are. So when you think about it like that... it’s a wonder we trust anyone at all.

& Nessa: If it’s the price... for a nation.

& Shlomo: And you always got to be fair, right?
    Ephra: It’s how we survive, Shlomo.
    Shlomo: Is that why that Palestinian bastard, Samir Meshal, has been invited?
    Ephra: Everyone who’s put in a tender has been invited.
    Shlomo: Hasn’t turned up yet, I see. Well... Waiting to make some big fucking entrance on some big fucking camel just to prove he’s such a big fucking Arab, huh? I tell you, he wins that contract and I get my hands on his neck... fuck the Six-Day War, it’ll be over in seconds.

& Nessa: So, these aliens decide to invade Earth and to show they mean business what they do is first they destroy London then New York and then they land, right on the Green Line between Israel and the West Bank. And they decide to call a meeting between the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli Government. And their message is simple. “Resistance is useless! Lay down your arms!” I can’t really tell you the detail of what happened next, but basically by the end of it your sympathy was with the aliens.

& Nessa: Yes, it’s true. His company name, my family name, was stamped on the side of mortar shells and rifles and tanks... because that’s what my father offered Israel. Strong walls for a fledgling nation. And that’s what cost him his life, here in this room... 29 years ago.

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& Nessa: .... But when Ephra and I took over this company... we decided on a fundamental change. In our view, amongst the greatest threats to Israel is Palestinian poverty. Terror thrives in poverty, it dies in wealth. And so we decided that instead of mines, we would lay cables. Millions of miles of cables, for telephones, for the internet, millions of miles of communication. Because we believe that the strongest wall we can help Israel to maintain, is the one through which equality of opportunity can pass.
Ω Phew. Such an agenda here.

& Shlomo: Nessa, my daughter, you have enemies enough already.
    Nessa: It’s the Middle East, Shlomo. Enemies is what you make.

& — Actually, what are you? Oh, a son of a... Lord?
    Hugh: Baronet.
    — Baronet. From Ireland. Now there’s a conflict.
    Hugh: Maybe that’s why they gave me the Middle East.
    — It’s a dangerous kind of spy, Sir Hugh, who even lies to himself.

& Hugh: I only lied because I didn’t want to hurt you.
    Angie: Hugh, most people get fucked by their job, not for it.

& Hugh: How?
    — Hung himself from a flagpole wrapped in his national flag.
    Hugh: How very patriotic.

& Hugh: Knight to B6.
    Judah: Interesting.

& Hugh: I’m about to be retired.
    Judah: Oh? Hmm.
    Hugh: So this will probably be my last case. And like every good spy, when I leave a case... I like to leave it... empty.

& Nessa: I don’t pretend to have an all-encompassing solution, clearly we don’t, but with what we’re trying to do here, at least we’re no longer part of the problem.

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