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2004 remains a source of controversy among his PLO loyalists, many of whom believe he was poisoned
by Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service. By the time Shimon Peres, the Nobel Prize-winning prime minister of Israel who helped resolve many of the more intangible issues, died more peacefully aged 93 in 2016, he had become one of the most accomplished statesmen of our age.
But perhaps the greatest casualty from that era - when there were genuine expectations on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide that the conflict might be resolved peacefully — has been the peace process itself, which today is almost nonexistent. When, for example, I told an Arab ambassador acquaintance I was going to see a preview of the play, he simply remarked: “No one talks about the peace process any more. It doesn’t exist.”
This makes Roger’s examination of one of the most unlikely diplomatic dialogues ever undertaken all the more poignant, as it harks back to an era when reconciliation seemed genuinely possible.
The task facing the rival delegates when they first meet is a daunting one. For the Israelis, if the fact became known that they were talking to the PLO, the government would most likely fall. For the Palestinians, it would mean an assassin’s bullet.
At the heart of this danse macabre stands Red-Larsen, whom I met on several occasions in Jerusalem in the Nineties when the hard work had begun on implementing the deal. A quiet, patient man, he never seemed to be entirely comfortable with the rough-house atmosphere of the region, where disputes were often more likely to be resolved through rocks and rubber bullets than rational persuasion.
Toby Stephens’s portrayal of Red- Larsen gives him a great deal more zest and personality than I recall, but this neatly nuanced performance is key to the pace of this fast-moving, entertaining take on the events (Rogers has said that, in order to liven up what might otherwise seem a prosaic and convoluted political process, he studied
the plays ot Noél Coward). My favourite scene from the play
Friday 15, September 2017
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is the one where the lead Israeli negotiator, taking a break from
the negotiations, entertains his Palestinian counterparts by giving an impersonation of Arafat as an effeminate narcissist, a portrayal I found entirely plausible from my own encounters with the PLO leader, whose vanity knew no bounds.
Uri Savir, who was deputed by Peres to run the Israeli side of the negotiations, was someone else I got to know during that period. An urbane multi-linguist of an academic disposition, I generally found Uri to be softly spoken and thoughtful when discussing regional issues. Philip Arditti’s portrayal of him in the play, though, makes him out to be more like the uncompromising, muscular Israeli type, more usually found in the ranks of the security forces than in the diplomatic service.
Depictions in theatre of almost anything to do with the Middle East tend to stir strong passions among audiences. I was particularly struck by Rogers’ sympathetic understanding of the Palestinian predicament. “I was very anxious about the combustibility of it,” said Rogers in a recent interview. “I assumed there would be controversy lin America] only because someone would be enraged that I had allowed the ‘other side’ to have their say.” Certainly Peter Polycarpou’s depiction of Ahmed Qurei, the Palestinian finance minister sent by Arafat to make peace, admirably captures the conflicting emotions of enduring the pain of exile while seeking to wreak terrible vengeance on the Israeli occupiers.
Indeed, for all the quips and light-hearted banter, Os/o is, at heart, a deeply emotional drama. When the Israelis finally strike a deal with the Palestinians during a telephone call to Arafat’s headquarters in Tunis, they think they can hear music playing in the background. In fact it is the battle-hardened veterans of the PLO sobbing at the prospect of being allowed to return to their homeland.
Ultimately, the play is an implicit tragedy about the failure of both sides to build a lasting peace on the basis of the painful concessions made during
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