Oslo

-(whistling) -(crowd yelling)

I'll reconfirm the time, and the location.

Wait for my call.

Yes, wear the blue tie.

-(horn honks) -(trucks rumbling)

Hello?

Mona Juul (over phone): He'll be there at noon.

Excellent, darling.

Mona: Listen to me.

This meeting is completely unofficial.

Understood. Absolutely.

You cannot even mention my ministry.

Darling... Darling... Trust me.

Two years of multi-national negotiations

between us and the Palestinians have achieved

absolutely nothing.

Why? Because our government

refuses to negotiate directly with the PLO.

They are not allowed at the table.

But every day, Ahmed Qurie,

the PLO's finance minister, in London,

sitting in a hotel room across the street from the negotiation

telling the Palestinian delegation exactly what to say.

We are racing toward a precipice.

In Europe, they are calling us Nazis.

In Europe.

Every day, more and more of the world turns against us,

but all we do is sit at that fucking negotiation table.

Terje Larsen: Because you're trapped in a process

incapable of building trust.

But...

with my assistance, my expertise,

you could change that.

Tell me exactly what part of the Norwegian government

-are you with, Mr. Huntsen? -Larsen.

Call me Terje.

No, I'm a, a private citizen.

I run the Fafo Institute.

A think tank.

-Why would I accept your help? -Because you need it.

Because my negotiating model, and mine alone,

is going to help you.

You and the Palestinians are using

the antiquated negotiating model of totalism.

All issues of disagreement

on the table. All sides at the table.

It's disastrous. The process is formal, it's rigid,

and the results are absolute failure.

But this is what the Americans want us to do.

And so you must do it, but at the same time,

start a second process.

Built, not on grand pronouncements between governments,

but intimate discussions between people

held somewhere isolated.

Totally.

Where you and the PLO can meet. Alone.

And talk.

This process I could oversee.

The place, I'd arrange.

Absolute discretion, guaranteed.

It is illegal for any Israeli official to speak to the PLO.

-Yes. -But someone unofficial...

-Who you and Peres could choose. -That you could introduce to.

-Exactly what I was thinking. -Yes.

-Tea? -Yes.

Ahmed Qurie: And how long were you stationed in the Middle East?

Mona: Two years.

And from this, you have just returned.

Yes.

Thank you.

It is a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Qurie.

I'm pleased our work brings us to London at the same time.

Ah, well, you are here for work.

But alas, I am here for foolishness.

In that hotel,

they are negotiating for the future of Palestine.

Yet I, who am the finance minister of the PLO,

I am banned, barred,

blocked from the very table

where the economic future of my people

is to be determined.

Mr. Qurie, you don't need to give me the speech.

Of course.

You are on our side.

And on theirs.

Forgive me, but I don't speak Arabic.

And yet you profess to understand my region

and my people,

when in fact, clearly,

there is very little that you understand.

Mona: That may be true.

But I do understand that your Chairman Arafat's

backing of Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War

so angered your now former Arab allies

that they expelled 90,000 Palestinian guest workers,

thereby creating such a financial catastrophe

for your people,

that the PLO is now stuck in exile in Tunis,

unable to pay even the electricity bills.

I also understand

that without additional support from my government,

your organization will slide

one step closer to irrelevancy.

Mr. Qurie,

tell me how much you need,

and I will do what I can.

But I want you to do one thing.

Not for me. For you.

There's a man being sent here to London to meet you today.

If you are willing to see him.

-This way. Yep. Mm-hmm. -I'm not here as my government.

-He knows this, right? -Yes, he knows. He knows. He knows.

It is against the law, Mr. Larsen,

-for any Israeli-- -Both: To meet with the PLO.

I know. Shh, shh, shh. After you. After you. Hello. Thank you.

-(stammering) -Yes, he knows. Come on.

-Absolutely. Absolutely. -But, I, I, I-- Wait, wait, wait...

What's wrong?

I have never met an Israeli face-to-face.

-(footsteps departing) -(lighter clicks)

Now, you know what you're going to say?

-Ah, yes, yes. Yes, of course. -Okay.

: Yeah, yeah. Right. Okay.

-Right. Here we go. -(door opens)

Oh.

Hello.

Hello.

London is very cold this time of year.

Yes.

And wet.

Yes.

Not like home.

I have not been home since 1967,

when every man, woman, and child in my village

was forced to flee our homeland,

before the advancing hordes of Zionism.

Aah.

But I remember well the warmth there

this time of year.

I read your latest paper.

Oh?

I thought it was excellent.

Thank you.

As a matter of fact, I...

I've written a paper of my own,

demonstrating the benefits of such economic cooperation.

Perhaps if you could read it.

Give me your professional feedback.

I would be honored.

Mona: Gentlemen, it's time.

-(sighs) -You have been most generous with your thoughts.

We should meet again.

To discuss economics.

The future.

I'm told if we were to meet in Oslo,

Friends would prove-- appro--

Sorry... Sorry.

I am told if we were to meet in Oslo,

friends would provide us

solitude and privacy,

and anything else we would require.

Who are you?

I'm just a professor of economics

who supports dialogue with the PLO.

On whose authority do you speak?

I have no authority!

But I am having breakfast tomorrow in Tel Aviv

with my dear good friend Yossi Beilin.

I am so looking forward

to telling our new deputy foreign minister

about my trip to London.

-(cork pops) -Jan Egeland: My God.

I mean, my God, that's impossible.

Larsen: Jan, the Berlin Wall has just fallen,

the Soviet empire has disbanded. Anything is possible.