Opening scene in the form of a black-and-white newsreel.

"Israel's Ethnic Weapon?
A Wired News Report"

says the solemn voice of a male narrator.

Scientists wearing white lab jackets pour liquids into test tubes.

"November 16, 1998," the narrator continues.

"Israel is reportedly developing a biological weapon that would harm Arabs while
leaving Jews unaffected. The report, citing intelligence sources, says that scientists are trying to identify distinctive genes carried by Arabs to create a genetically modified bacterium or virus.

The 'ethno-bomb' is reportedly Israel's response to the threat that Iraq may be just weeks away from completing its own biological weapons. The task is very complex because both Arabs and Jews are Semitic peoples. But, according to the report, the Israelis have succeeded in isolating characteristics of certain Arabs, particularly Iraqis."

A photo montage recapitulates Israel's history.

The first scene shows ancient Hebrews surveying rocky terrain. Other tribes live there, letting their flocks graze. From the fringes of the wilderness, the Hebrews wage guerrilla war. Whoever they can not defeat, they go around, settling in between.

Jump to a map of Europe and the Middle East. Large arrows indicate the migrations of Jews for two centuries. Solemn music underscores the horrors of the Holocaust. Cut to the faces of survivors returning to Israel after the war.

The birth of Israel: young Israelis dance around a bonfire, their faces illuminated by flames, as the narrator reads the Arab declaration that Israel must be eliminated.

Show, don't tell, how Israel is justified by history in defending itself. Show, don't tell, how Palestinians are justified by history in defending themselves.

Scenes of Israelis fighting for their lives. Scenes of Palestinians fighting for their lives.

A voiceover describes how easy it is to wage biological warfare. An Israeli jet bombs an Iraqi nuclear reactor. Iran and Iraq wage war. Iraqi troops load gas and germs into warheads, then invade Kuwait. A series of unpublished photos [television crews were kept far from the front] show Iraqi corpses stuck up like burnt corks from charred vehicles. Only their vague faces suggest they were human.

"Israel is reportedly developing a biological weapon that would harm Arabs while leaving Jews unaffected."

But Semitic peoples are all so similar.

How can you kill the "other" when you are the other?

In a Petri Dish

A subplot: life at the cellular level.

Genetic material cares only for its own survival. Individual humans are merely hosts, bridges between possibilities. When a gene mutates, the "self" it would have become is no longer the same self. A different "self" emerges at the higher level of complexity. But we use the same name because it's easier.

At the level of genetic code, DNA knows only that it must replicate. As we spiral up levels of complexity, we maintain an illusion of our uniqueness in order to manage our lives. We live inside those abstractions, those necessary fictions - cultures, religions, species - simply in order to think clearly.

Scratch that: too complex. Get back to Israelis and Iraqis preparing to destroy one another. Abused children loving each other the only way they know.

The Plot Thickens

The biological weapon invented by the Israelis mutates. It becomes capable of killing Jews too. An outbreak wipes out a settlement. Israelis think Arabs are using biological agents. The Iraqis are looking for a virus, yes, that will kill just Jews, but haven't developed it yet. So the Iraqis think the Israelis did it, setting a Reichstag fire.

Mirror Mirror, On the Wall

Moslems through the Koran and Jews through the Torah believe they are apples of God's eye. We are all children, unable to be content to be merely loved. We must be loved most. When we project that longing onto the blank screen of the Universe, it reads: "God loves ... [fill in the blank] [Jews, Moslems, Christians] most.

If everyone is rocked in the same cradle, and the cradle falls [stars explode, galaxies collide] then the Universe cares equally for everyone ... and no one.

To love in the face of love that looks like indifference is an act of moral courage.

Tell Us a Story

Two spies, an Israeli female and a male Arab, fall in love. Romeo and Juliet. Lots of complex irony in how they love and hate, fight and make up. In order to love, they must transcend their narrower allegiance. They discover a greater good that includes both.

Meanwhile, a vial of lethal virus is lost in a village of Jewish settlers. The Israeli woman is related to a family in the village. The surrounding Palestinian community plans to attack. The Arab man is related to the ringleader.

The renegade spies must find the vial, avoid being killed (both are pursued by both sides), and prevent a general bloodbath. They alone know the virus kills both Jews and Arabs.

Intelligence agencies target the lovers. The pair is behaving like a spiral of genetic material, wanting only for their own pattern - their code - their transcendent love - to survive. They have mutated into a new way of behaving, but viewed from inside the old way of understanding, they are traitors. Their allegiance to a higher good is perceived as betrayal.

A beneficial mutation perceived as disease.

They use their wits to evade capture. Fantastic action scenes. Real fun stuff.

Once, after they make love, they explore the meaning of what they have discovered. This is like a screen play, he says. Yes, she says. Movies too, as Aristotle said of drama, can make the unbearable bearable. He holds her close. An artful film, he whispers, like seeing the head of Medusa in a mirror, lets us look at reality without turning to stone.

Reality, she murmurs. What is reality?

Suddenly, he sees. Reality is Israel developing a biological weapon that would kill Arabs, leaving Jews unaffected.

"The horror!" he says. "The horror!"

Dissolve into an overcast sky that seems to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.

November 21 1998