Beirut

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1

For 4,000 years...

...villains and heroes,

and they don't do that here.

Here, you have Jews, Muslims, Christians,

all living shoulder to shoulder,

and it's messy.

And the challenge

for the State Department, for us...

Sounds like

I'm not gonna get a quick answer.

Mason's just playing the diplomat,

Congressman.

He's been here long enough

to explain this place in a minute.

Let's have

the shorter version. Give me the snapshot.

I don't know if I'd call it

a snapshot, but I tell people,

"If you wanna understand Lebanon, think

of a boardinghouse without a landlord."

The only thing the tenants have in common

is their talent for betrayal.

So these people have been living together,

cheek by jowl, 20 centuries.

2,000 years of revenge, blood feuds,

vendetta, murder.

One night there's a storm.

Raining like hell.

There's a knock at the door.

Who is it? It's the Palestinians.

They want in.

They've been up and down the block.

They had doors slammed in their face.

They're cold. They're tired.

They want in and they want in now.

So the house is thrown into confusion.

Tenants arguing.

Some of 'em violently opposed.

Some think, "Let 'em in.

They'll be gone tomorrow."

Some think, "I let them in tonight,

then I'll have an ally against my enemy."

Some of 'em are terrified

if they keep the door shut.

So it isn't until after

the Palestinians move in

that the other people in the house

realize the tragedy of the situation.

That the Palestinians want nothing more

than to just burn down

the Israeli house next door.

Welcome to Beirut.

I told you he's good.

- Sure is.

- And so it goes.

Mr. Skiles.

a va? How are you?

You look beautiful. You look great.

Mason Skiles. How do you do?

We have not met. How do you do?

Nice to see you again. There he is.

We know who

we don't wanna make deals with.

The lessons of Vietnam have been learned.

And I think our president

has got his own things

on the domestic front to deal with.

But what we definitely don't wanna do is

establish any sort of permanent presence.

- Where are you from?

- Washington, DC.

Well, good for you. Welcome. Here we are.

The party is a delight.

Thank you!

We understand

that Beirut, specifically,

and Lebanon, more generally,

has enough people coming in

and trying to put fingerprints on it.

We don't wanna be one of those.

We just wanna make sure

everybody has a fair playing ground

to contribute

to a stable regional economy.

That's what I think.

The congressman

can certainly speak more to that.

Karim, this is some friends of ours.

This is Agnes and Joanne

from the United Kingdom.

Karim's been keeping everybody well-fed.

- Good job.

- Thank you.

How old is he?

He looks young.

He's about 13.

He's from one of the Palestinian

refugee camps in West Beirut.

He stuck around,

and he's become a part of the family,

which is very nice.

-My lovely wife, Nadia.

-Nice to meet you.

- You know the congressman.

- Are you enjoying Beirut?

-We've been having a very nice time.

-Yeah. Yes.

I find it's a beautiful place,

full of beautiful people.

Yes.

One beautiful person in particular.

As a diplomat in the Middle East,

you have to think on your feet.

And the more you do it,

the better you get at it.

When you talk about making deals,

the most important thing

is to keep talking.

As soon as the talking stops,

the fighting starts.

You need to come in

from a diplomatic standpoint

and explain to everybody involved,

"This is what we have to work with.

These are the pieces

on the game board right now."

Thank you for being here.

I'm gonna leave you in very capable hands.

I've gotta say hi to somebody.

Thanks so much. Good to see you.

Alice. Alice, all alone.

I heard you had congressmen.

You know how that drives me wild.

Where is Cal? I could use a hand.

He's coming. Just something at the office.

Everyone behaving themselves?

It's early.

Come on. Let's get you a drink.

- Hungry?

- Famished.

Hurry up, girls!

It's dinner time!

Mmm-mmm. Mmm.

- How we doing?

- Good.

Christians in one corner,

Muslims in the other

and Jack Daniel's in between.

Dinner's close. Everyone here?

Cal's late, but Alice said

we should start without him.

How are you, sweetie?

My next life?

-In your next life, you marry a carpenter.

-Mmm.

Where you been hiding?

The drivers out back,

they took everything.

The drivers clean you out?

They live to eat.

There you go.

Get you reloaded

and back out there.

Pardon. Pardon.

- Hey. How are ya?

- Hey, sweetie.

Have you seen Mason?

You look tense.

No, no. Just wanna talk

to Mason for a second.

What's wrong?

Nothing. I just...

Hello, Karim. Look at you.

Don't you look elegant.

-Don't you think so, Cal?

-Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very elegant.

I understand congratulations are in order.

Nadia told me

you did really well on your exams.

She helped a lot.

But she's not the one

who took the test, is she?

You heard about this, right?

Yeah. Very impressive.

Excuse me, I'm just gonna...

Hey! There you are.

I was having a nightmare.

I was gonna have to babysit

these yahoos by myself.

- We need to talk.

- You need a drink.

Too much mingling with congressmen

will make you lose faith in democracy.

Indeed. We need to talk.

Mas, we've been through

a lot together. Right?

And somehow we've managed

to steer around the icebergs.

No, thank you.

Cal, spit it out. We have 25 people

out there waiting for dinner.

I've never come to you

with anything operational.

-We've always been clean.

-What the f*** are we talking about?

Karim.

It's about Karim.

They want him for questioning.

-Who wants him?

-Everybody.

- He's got a brother. Did you know that?

- What? No, he's got no one.

Why do you think Nadia took him in?

Rafid Abu Rajal.

They were separated in '68.

Karim came here to Beirut.

Rafid went to prison

for two years in Jordan.

Hold on.

Where's this going?

Munich.

The brother left a rental car

outside the Olympic Village.

They've got prints. They've got a witness.

They got this, Mas.

That's Karim and his brother

six months ago here in Beirut.

They who?

There's an operations supervisor

at the bottom of the driveway.

They want him now.

They who? Mossad?

I can help you. I can't make this go away.

So it is Mossad.

-Israel just drops a dime--

-Your people are all over this.

This is bullshit.

The State Department froze

your security access two hours ago. Okay?

Someone talked. It leaked.

It's gotta be now. It's not safe.

Cal, it's Karim for f***'s sake.

You've got the kid brother

of Global Enemy Number One

serving canapes to congressmen.

What are you gonna do?

Drag him out of here?

You think Nadia's gonna go for that?

She just filed papers for his sponsorship.

We just got him a student visa,

for chrissakes.

He's part of the family, Cal.

Not my call.

You go tell your boss that I'll be

down to talk to him in five minutes.

Karim, you be honest with me.

If you lie to me, if you hang me up,

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