Cut to the Palestinian delegation outside, shoes off, beginning their evening prayer.

After a few moments, we cut to an interior scene where the Shabbat service is beginning. The Israeli PM's wife lights some candles as prayers are chanted. (And for those who like to play six degrees, I would like to inform you that the beautiful candelabra used in this scene -- along with Jed's kippah -- were provided by the director of a local Jewish school attended by the children of a good friend of mine.) Jed, Abbey, and Leo are present. People in the forums have expressed some concern that the depiction of the Shabbat service was not entirely realistic. The woman lighting the candles does not have her head covered, for example, and the prayers are being chanted rather than sung. But it's also been suggested that Israeli politicians, except for those from the religious parties, are fairly secular, and that they might not conduct their religious observances in the most traditional manner. Although this would lend itself to one of my favorite games ("Non-Experts Discuss"), I will leave the subject behind after pointing out that the producers of the show had available to them some folks who are very knowledgeable about Judaism, so any deviation from tradition is (I hope) intended.

The scene cuts back and forth between the two groups. At times, we hear the prayers of one group over a visual of the other, or the two prayers intermingling. At one point we cut to Kate and Charlie, who are watching the Palestinians at their prayers. Kate: "It's beautiful, isn't it? It's the law, they have to do it five times a day." The montage continues. Kate: "The tragedy is that the Palestinians and the Jews are so much alike." Charlie: "How's that?" Kate: "All through history, nobody's wanted either of them." Thanks for that startling insight, Kate. I don't know that we ever would have gotten that without your help. The scene ends when both the evening prayers and the Shabbat service are completed. On the one hand, I enjoyed this scene for the fact that it was one of the rare times that non-Christian religious rituals are presented on American television in a really tender and lovely manner. And it was certainly gorgeous, both visually and aurally. But I'm not sure that I actually trust the producers to have any good motivation in presenting the two groups this way. Instead, I fear that they were just trying to present both the Palestinians and Israelis as exotic. So I have mixed views. (Which is more than I can say for my views about the rest of this piece of crap.)