Shatila by Night
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NIGHT, SHATILA REFUGEE CAMP, SOUTH BEIRUT, LEBANON, 1982
Moshe Yatom's helicopter is circling around the Shatila refugee camp. Through the use of night vision technology, Moshe monitors the advance of several groups of armed men gathering people from house to house and systematically lining them up before opening fire upon them. Occasional flares light up the sky.
Moshe
(in Hebrew through his helmet's microphone)
Visual on three separate groups of 3 to 5 men entering houses and extracting its occupants... looks like civilians... including children... and shooting them.
Radio Voice
Any response from the Palestinians.
Moshe
Not from what we can see on this fly path. Someone is shooting flares from inside the perimeter. We're staying above 500 meters along the coast to avoid RPGs from the West.
Radio Voice
Continue monitoring. Give me a Sitrep in 30 minutes.
Moshe turns towards the pilot.
Pilot
(to Moshe)
Who's down there shooting?
Moshe
Some Gemayel units most likely.
Pilot
These guys are nuts! What's the plan.
Moshe
Observe and report.
BETH ISRAEL HOSPITAL, MANHATTAN, NY, 1982
Pat wakes up to find his daughter Carla, 7, by his side. She just flew in from Switzerland after long discussions between the Xanthis and Beerli families.
Carla stands still as Pat opens his eyes. He extends his arms but his mouth is too dry for him to talk. Carla doesn't move and Pat smiles at her. He reaches a piece of paper and a pen on the side table and writes a note which he then hands to Carla. Carla stiffly extends her arm to get the note and reads it. "I will always love you".
A tear drops on Carla's cheek.
IDF ADVANCED POST, SOUTHERN LEBANON
Moshe has been raised as a Zionist idealist by his Moshavim father. His mother Isabella always kept his out of wedlock origins a secret . Although his mother infused him a sense of justice and discernment, his harsher military/conservative side protruded in public.
GREEK ORTODOX CEMETERY, ASTORIA, NY
Carla, 7, is holding her grand-father's (Anastasio, 56) hand as her father's coffin is lowered into the ground. An Orthodox priest is reciting a prayer as a rain pours on all attendees.
STREET, MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY
Anastasio is holding Carla's hand as he shows her around Time Square.
EVENING, 8TH AVENUE DINER (NEAR 47TH STREET), MANHATTAN, NY
Anastasio
You're a big girl now.
Carla sits still in her booth sipping on a milk shake.
Anastasio (con't)
A very long time ago, way before your daddy was born, way before I married yiayia, I lost what at that time was the most important person in the world. I lost her to save her life and to follow the mission my father had given me. I never saw her again, and I never saw my father neither. But since then, they've always been with me. In my dreams, when life was difficult and when beautiful things happened to me. Like when you were born...
Carla sips through the bottom of her glass making noise with her straw.
Anastasio
(gently smiling)
You want another one Koukla?
Carla
(in English with a Swiss German accent)
No... I want a sandwich with orange cheese.
Anastasio
A grill cheese?
Carla nods yes with a smile.
Anastasio
(to the waitress in Greek)
A grill cheese and a Coke... Please.
Anastasio
Anyways... You're a big girl but for me, you'll always be my Koukla. You're father also had a happy life, even if it was short and I'm sure that he was happy to see you near him at the end, to see that life continues through you.
Anastasio grabs her cheek across the table as Carla gives him a smile. The CBS Evening News theme emanates from a television set near the cash counter.
Anastasio
(somewhat paying attention to the newscast)
Time to go. We don't want to miss the plane. We'll get the grill cheese to go, Ok.
Bob Schieffer anchors the September 25, 1982 Saturday Edition:
-400,000 people march in the streets of Tel Aviv to protest against the Sabra & Shatila massacres.
-Penn prison guard George Banks kills 13 (5 were his own children)
-USSR performs an underground nuclear test
-CDC announces the spread of new infectious disease named AIDS and also known as "gay cancer" amongst the male homosexual population in NYC, SF and LA.