The Paring Knife

The Honourable Woman 1×8

& Hugh: ... So they had to take him out before the Israelis could get to him and find out what it was she’d agreed to.
    Julia: The murder of Nessa Stein?
    Hugh: Maybe, but I don’t think so. Come on, this is realpolitik. Whatever it is, it has to make the US look good.

& Hugh: Huh! There was me thinking she’s gunning for my job, when, all along, she just wants yours.
    Julia: Ouch.

& The Secretary of State: ’I am not a businesswoman, I am a politician. And a politician recognises that a state without a cohesive identity is a state that cannot function — a state that will fail — and a failed state is a danger to the world. A balance needs to be brought to bear and not only one that is economic, to which Nessa Stein’s life must surely attest, but one that is also political... to which cause this administration has decided to take a bold and certain stance. Should the Palestinian Authority resubmit its application to the UN for full state recognition, it is the intent of this administration not to exercise its veto. We, the American people, will not stand in the way of Palestine’s quest for statehood. Thank you.’
Ω Brrrr.

& Julia: Today’s a different world.
    Monica: A better one.

& Monica: It’s all over... So say goodbye to the view, Hugh.

& Muraji: We think this is an Israeli ploy to discredit the brave stand America has taken against them. Nessa Stein is dead. A martyr to our cause.

& Daniel: ...and remember, the airspace above the Palestinian territories, it is Israeli.
    Julia: Hm. When you hear that, it makes you think, doesn’t it?

& Julia: There is no way that I’m suggesting UK boots on Palestinian soil.

---

& Hugh: I understand.
    Atika: What do you understand?
    Hugh: You believe in a cause. Actually, I rather admire it. One you can give your whole life to... kill for... and die.

& Hugh: Anything for the cause. And what is that? Palestinian statehood? And here we are, this close to your goal. Nothing must stop it from happening. Nothing.

& Atika: Cables? We need a nation.

& Atika: Have you seen the hills? What they’re building? Every day and every day? What you try don’t change anything for my people. We need so much more...
    Nessa: What else can I do?

& Nessa: Do you need me to die?
    Atika: Me? Oh, no. No. But if it’s the price... for a nation... I’m sorry to tell you, yes.

& Zahid al Zahid: My son raped you. On my orders. Mine. One of my soldiers, also... he killed your father. On my orders. What I have ordered goes beyond all imagining. So I must ask you... if there was a knife on the table between us here... what would you do?

& Zahid al Zahid: The hatred you feel for me right now... only matches what I have felt for your people... all my life.

& Zahid al Zahid: I know you won’t take it... because you think you are better than me. More cultured, more sophisticated. More human. And I hate you all the more... because you have never stopped to think why that is.

& Nessa: I know the answer. And I’ve known it since I first asked... and after every dreadful thing that’s happened since... and the answer’s always the same. I deserve it. All of it. No matter what I do.

& Atika: Get off my land.

& Berkoff: How come it all came down to you?
    Julia: Well, I don’t know, Harlan. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that, in a room full of pussies... I’m the only one with a vagina.

& Hugh: See, I’d die for you.

& Hugh: If I end up in a wheelchair, will you come and push me?
    Angie: I’ll think about it.
    Hugh: Then I’ll be breaking them both this evening.

& Angie: Ah, well. Democracy... Good luck with that!

--
On the IMDb

Σ Huh! It’s a women’s world.

The Hollow Wall

The Honourable Woman 1×7

& Nessa: What are those?
    Frances: Ceremonial shovels. The idea is that both you and El-Amin have one at the launch.
    Nessa: OK.
    Frances: The problem is, which one to choose. This one’s Palestinian made. This one’s Israeli. This one’s got an Israeli handle on, but a Palestinian blade, and this one’s the other way round. What you really need is a blade that’s half and half, split down the middle, so that both sides strike the ground at the same time.
    Nessa: So do that.
    Frances: What if they crack, break apart? I’m not sure that’s the photo opportunity you’re looking for.

& Nessa: Have you told the police?
    Hugh: It’s not my job.
    Nessa: What’s your job?
    Hugh: You know what? I’m not sure any more. Maybe I should stop doing it.

& Hugh: If there’s one person you should trust in all this... it’s Shlomo Zahary.

& Rachel: Ephra? Running? Hm. I don’t think so.
    Atika: Maybe... he wants to get away from things.
    Rachel: Oh. Well, that kind of running... That makes perfect sense. If only I could do the same.

---

& Frances: Look at this! A world event rapidly turning into Carry On Up The Kibbutz.

& Ephra: Hi. My name’s Ephra. Today, I’ll mostly be having a nervous breakdown and running away from it all. What’s your alibi?

& Atika: Let’s switch the phones off. Go away, world.

& Nessa: What it’s all really about is very, very simple. It’s about our need to communicate with each other. And with others. Here... and there. Talk. Trade. Understand. And that’s it.

& Hugh: Jesus.
    Julia: See why I never came off the Pill?

& Judah: Whatever we may or may not have done in the past, we didn’t kill Nessa Stein or her brother!
    Hugh: Except that world opinion seems to think you did...

& Corrspondent: Will that involve a full, unambiguous condemnation of Israel’s failure to rein in its own domestic extremists?
    Special Adviser to the Secretary of State Kate Larsson: If what looks to have happened actually has, then, yes, you can expect a very strong response from this department.

& Kate Larsson: Yes, she has agreed. ... Yes, she has agreed. ... Yes, she has agreed.

--
On the IMDb

The Mother LIne

The Honourable Woman 1×6

& Nessa: Why do you need to know?
    Hugh: I want to help.
    Nessa: You want to help me or you?

& Hugh: Who by?
    Nessa: Samarian Defence League. Yaniv Levi.
    Hugh: You’ve heard of him?
    Nessa: Horrible... horrible Israeli terrorist.
Ω Pah!

& Hugh: You don’t think this is connected?
    Nessa: Do you?
    Hugh: When it comes to Israel and Palestine... isn’t everything?

& El-Amin: Yaniv Levi is an Israeli attack dog... and they just let him off the leash.
    Nessa: We don’t know that. Not yet.
    El-Amin: I know it. Someone had to pay him.
    Nessa: I’m not sure he’s a gun for hire.
    El-Amin: He always has a price, of course he does. What Jew doesn’t?

---

& Shlomo: Would you please be so kind as to offer me one of your pomegranate shakes? No ice, please, and a straw... It’s good for the grey cells, pomegranate, stops you going gaga.

& Shlomo: Do you know why I’m a billionaire?.. Cos everything, every single thing on a telecommunications network, is monetarised. Every little bit of traffic that uses a line is paid for by someone, somewhere. And in order for that to be done, every single one of those lines has to have a number. Now, do you know who does the itemised billing for all those millions of numbers?.. My company.

& Hugh: All this for a housekeeper’s kid?!
    Shlomo: In a child’s eyes, the world entire.
    Hugh: I wouldn’t know, I don’t have one.

& Hugh: What did you hear him say?
    Judah: «She... has... agreed.»
    Hugh: That’s it?
    Judah: That’s it.
    Hugh: Who’s «she»? What did she agree to?
    Judah: That’s why I’m telling you.

& Rachel: You shouldn’t have lied to me. Not under my own roof.

--
On the IMDb

Two Hearts

The Honourable Woman 1×5

& Julia: With all these bombs Hamas keep throwing into your country, I suspect your forces are about to re-enter Gaza.
    Daniel: If they can’t settle it for themselves, we’ll do it for them.
    Julia: That’s an unfortunate reality.
    Daniel: Hm.

& Julia: ...one tiny, little silver lining... Nessa Stein.
    Daniel: Are you trying to play us, Julia?
    Julia: Daniel. As her brother’s dramatic weight-loss programme has clearly taught me, when it comes to the Middle East, you never, ever try to play the Israelis.

& Ephra: Secrets are weird. People think you share them. But you don’t. They have two sides. Either you own them or they own you.

& Ephra: You’re going to do exactly what they say, that’s what.
    Nessa: Not until I know.
    Ephra: No, no, we know already. And believe me, speaking as someone who really knows about this shit, you don’t have the choice, not any more.
    Nessa: We don’t know that.
    Ephra: Yes, we do! Because that’s the side you’re on, Nessa.. You don’t own this secret. It owns you.

& Hugh: Judah, are you going to help me out here?
    Judah: As I remember, if I were you, I’d consider moving your knight from C3 to D5.

---

& Hugh: You’re telling me that until I just told you, you’d never even heard of it?
    Judah: No, I’m not saying that.
    Hugh: Ah.
    Judah: I’m saying, even now, after you told me... I still haven’t heard of it.
    Hugh: Then I think you should listen.
    Judah: You know, apparently, there are as many possibilities in chess as there are atoms in the universe. But I think they must have excluded the Middle East.

& Nessa: Do you think that’s what it is, or... do you think he’s complicit in some way?
    Max: This is for him to say and for you to feel.

& Shlomo: You know how much my company’s worth?.. Three billion dollars. I provide billing, directory services, credit checks for 53 of the world’s leading telephone companies. In America, in the UK, Europe, Hotzenplotz. I suck it all from all over the world. They all come to me.

& Grandpa! Grandpa!
    Shlomo: The monster is coming back!

& Ephra: You should set the Times crossword. I hear there’s a vacancy coming up.
    Hugh: You know what “clue” is in Ancient Greek?.. It’s “thread”. That educational enough for you?
    Ephra: No, wait, I’ll get a pen.
    Hugh: One thread to pull it all together. And all I have to do is find it.

& Hugh: I’ll use the door... But just to let you know, I can climb the walls.

& Aron Yavin: So, you want to know about switches and nodes and shit like that or you just want me to keep it simple?

& Nessa: This is the Middle East, Shlomo! You’ve got to know it all!!

--
On the IMDb

The Ribbon Cutter

The Honourable Woman 1×4

& — What about Palestinian rights?
    — Which Palestinians are you talking about? The ones under the rule of the Palestinian Authority, or the ones under the rule of Hamas? Because Hamas, who run Gaza right now, not only refuse to acknowledge that the Israeli state exists, they keep flinging rockets into the country to prove it.
    — The effects aren’t comparable. You’re talking David and Goliath.
    — How do the effects diminish the intention? I don’t get it. And if you talk David and Goliath, at least get your history the right way round. Goliath came from Gaza.
    — Do you make these arguments because you’re genuinely an Israeli apologist, or is it simply the fundamental default of being a Jew?
    — Do you ask this question because you’re genuinely anti-Semitic, or is it because you’re an absolute fucking shit?!
    Hugh: ... Fish was good.
Ω Very actual. Just in time. How did they know?

& Hugh: Darling, have you been upping my insurance?
    Julia: What?
    Hugh: Well, you know. There’s only one qualification for martyrdom... Death.

& Shlomo: How many times have I told you? Never ask for luck. Never! Luck is a beautiful woman you turn away from, cos you know you ain’t ever going to get her. And then, maybe then, she’ll touch your shoulder.

& TV announcer: ’Earlier today Israel welcomed... the release of a soldier... from the Israeli Defence Force. The Palestinian Authority, who claim to have negotiated the release of the Israeli soldier, insisted that the handover was a unilateral gesture of goodwill. This position has been reinforced today by Israel’s public reiteration of its refusal to negotiate with terrorists.’
Ω Oh. And here it’s. Now we’re at parallel universe.

---

& Ephra: Where did you pick this up?
    Nessa: I read it on the plane.
    Ephra: What? What did you read?
    Nessa: A spreadsheet.
    Ephra: You read spreadsheets?!
    Nessa: I’m not just a ribbon-cutter, Ephra!

& Ephra: The Authority is rife with this sort of thing, it has been for years, and... we have to work with it, because if we call it out, then they won’t work with us any more.
    Nessa: That’s corruption.
    Ephra: That’s reality.
    Nessa: I don’t accept it.
    Ephra: Well, then, you’re going to have to.

& Nessa: We cannot be compromised.
    Ephra: Don’t be so naive.
    Nessa: This is NOT the way to do it.
    Ephra: It’s the Middle East, Nessa. It’s the only way. And maybe that’s why, from now on, you SHOULD stick to cutting ribbons... at home.

& — We can’t tell him anything. He’s in Gaza and Gaza is run by Hamas now. We have no jurisdiction there, not since the Americans forced us to have that election.

& Ephra: We only ever had each other! Please!
    — So... every morning, every single morning that you wake up and you say your prayers, you say them for her, because YOU are the one who put her there. And God may forgive you for what you’ve done. But Israel... won’t.

& Zahid al Zahid: The grandson of Eli Stein... With my blood in its veins. First I ordered his death. Now I take his heritage. How great is his defeat?

--
On the IMDb

The Killing Call

The Honourable Woman 1×3

& Atika: I am his mother... after all.

& Rachel: I say we go to the police.
    Atika: It isn’t their world.
    Rachel: Atika, it’s our world you’re living in!
    Atika: But Kasim’s in theirs!

& Ephra: I’m not sure I’d be able to make that kind of decision.
    Atika: If you were me, you’d be a Gazan, born in a refugee camp that’s still there today. You’d have spent your whole life a stranger... on your own land. No home, no nation. Nothing. But if you were me, you would have learned one thing... How to wait.

& Nessa: You know who I am? You know what I represent? Trouble for you on every level, unless you co-operate.

---

& Nessa: It wasn’t that difficult.
    Bloom: The only way to get someone to talk is to make them more afraid of you than of anyone else. That’s... That’s difficult.

& Nessa: I am quite chilly, wouldn’t you say?
    Bloom: No, I wouldn’t say that. I’d say that you’re full of anger. No... Rage. Which is curious, given your public role as peacemaker.

& Bloom: I can’t. It’s professional suicide.

& Hugh: Have you been offered anything?
    Shlomo: I didn’t ask.
    Hugh: It’s free.
    Shlomo: I don’t think so.

& Shlomo: “And pig was man and man was pig.”
    Hugh: It’s all kosher, Mr Zahary.
    Shlomo: It’s Italian.

& Ephra: I’m going to ask you again, and I want you to tell me the truth. Who is Kasim’s father?
Ω Wrong question.
--
On the IMDb

The Faithful Husband

The Honourable Woman 1×2

& Ephra: Modeh ani l’faneykha... melekh chai vekayam... she-hechezarta bi nishmati bechemlah... rabbah emunatekha.

& Hugh: Go on, get lost before the boss sees you.
    Max: Too late. Shit. And here comes a chopper to chop off...
    Hugh: My dick.

& Israeli: What do you know about our history? Be very careful. The story you’ve just stepped into, it stretches back thousands of years.
British: All I rely on is what I can see with my own eyes.
Israeli: Then I hope you read Braille.
Ω Ugh. Too grossly, too primitive.

& Rachel: How long do I have to put up with these monkeys in my house?.. There is urine all over the floor in the cloakroom. If they aim like they piss, someone tries to kill us, we’re done for anyway.

---

& Rachel: There’s a big streak of vanity running through your family, Ephra, and it appears to be growing. First your father wants to save Israel, now your sister’s trying to save the Middle East. What’s your plan for my daughters? Is kryptonite involved?

& Frances: On the one side, you’ve got Margaret Andrews, who’s rabidly pro-Israeli...
    Nessa: Refreshingly unfashionable!
    Frances: ...On the other side, you’ve got Angela Roberts.
    Nessa: Just a couple of steps away from a Holocaust denier.

& Tracy: So, Paul... you want to catch a turkey, you got to show it the grain, OK? ....
    Paul: You want to catch a turkey, honey, you just blow its head off.

& Julia: If you’d been in the meeting that I had with Brigadier General Berkoff, you’d know that I just saved you from having your balls cut off.
    Hugh: And what’s the going rate for an ageing penis these days?
    Julia: Yes, they did. No, you can’t. But, yes, you should. See?

& Hugh: What’s the answer to my next question?
    Julia: Oh, well, that’s easy. Nessa Stein.
    Hugh: Ah. Not quite the woman she appears to be.
    Julia: Is any woman, Hugh?

--
On the IMDb

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.

---

& 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.

--
On the IMDb