Leo Briefs Bartlet: Arafat Must Denounce Jerusalem Bombing
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Leo identifies the Palestinian Freedom Front as responsible for the attack, confirming the bombers' origins.
Bartlet seeks confirmation from intelligence agencies, probing the reliability of the information.
Bartlet questions whether the attack is retaliation for Bekaa, revealing strategic considerations behind the violence.
Bartlet demands direct accountability from Arafat, insisting on visible security cooperation with Israel as a condition for de-escalation.
Leo orchestrates diplomatic pressure on Arafat while acknowledging the unlikelihood of preventing Israeli retaliation, revealing hard geopolitical realities.
Bartlet challenges Leo's assessment with a personal question about retaliation, exposing their shared understanding of justified violence.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Anticipated defensive pressure
Arafat referenced repeatedly as 'the chairman' and direct target; Bartlet demands his personal public denunciation of the bombing violence, Leo proposes UN Secretary-General pressuring him for compliance.
- • Avoid escalation implicating broader Palestinian leadership
- • Splinter actions independent of central control
- • Public concessions risk internal fractures
Deployed urgency
Scorza proposed by Leo to position at Israeli PM's office to urge holding fire and support restraint.
- • Forestall Israeli retaliation
- • On-site presence sways brinkmanship
- • U.S. restraint aligns allied interests
Skeptical scrutiny veiling grief-driven moral urgency
Bartlet engages skeptically in the shadowed Portico huddle, probing Leo for Agency/FBI confirmation, isolation from broader threats, Bekaa linkage, then demands Arafat's personal public denunciation and Israeli security cooperation, testing Leo's instinct on striking back.
- • Verify bombing intel beyond doubt
- • Extract Arafat's accountability to honor victims and prevent war
- • Arafat must own splinter violence publicly
- • True leadership demands restraint over vengeful reaction
Professionally assured
Hutchinson cited by Leo as having secured confirmations from Israeli foreign and interior ministers that the bombing was isolated.
- • Validate incident isolation for U.S. de-escalation
- • Israeli intel trustworthy on terror origins
- • Coordination prevents allied overreaction
Firm resolve masking urgent crisis pressure
Leo stands firm on the moonlit Portico, delivering precise intel on the Palestine Freedom Front bombing, confirming Agency/FBI consensus via Hutchinson's Israeli contacts, affirming Bekaa retaliation link, proposing UN and Scorza diplomatic pressures, and decisively rejecting retaliation when probed by Bartlet.
- • Convince Bartlet of isolated incident to enable de-escalation
- • Secure presidential buy-in for multilateral diplomatic intervention
- • Retaliation would escalate into broader conflict
- • Diplomatic leverage through UN and allies can enforce restraint
Instrumental determination
U.N. Secretary-General tasked by Leo to 'put the screws to' Arafat for denunciation and compliance.
- • Extract Arafat's public condemnation
- • UN leverage isolates terror acts
- • Global pressure enforces security pacts
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Bekaa Valley invoked by Bartlet and confirmed by Leo as provocation sparking the Palestine Freedom Front's retaliatory bombing, anchoring the incident's causality in prior U.S.-backed strikes and fueling de-escalation imperative.
The Portico serves as intimate, shadowed stage for Leo and Bartlet's urgent nighttime briefing on bombing intel and de-escalation strategy, its arches framing raw exchange where vulnerability yields to executive resolve, heightening stakes of grief-fueled crisis on Yom Kippur eve.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
Israeli Government poised for reprisals, with foreign/interior ministers confirming isolation to Hutchinson; Leo deploys Scorza to PM's office to urge holding fire tonight.
Palestine Freedom Front identified by Leo as the Palestinian splinter group behind the Jerusalem suicide bombing killing American brothers, framed as isolated actors whose savagery Bartlet demands Arafat denounce publicly.
Federal Bureau of Investigation concurs with Agency on bombing attribution to Palestine Freedom Front, as affirmed by Leo, validating isolation and enabling diplomatic off-ramps.
United Nations leveraged by Leo via its Secretary-General to pressure Arafat ('the chairman') for denunciation, integral to halting Israeli fire on Yom Kippur eve.
Central Intelligence Agency (Agency) intel concurred on by Leo as confirming Palestine Freedom Front's responsibility for the isolated bombing, bolstering case for de-escalation over wider conspiracy.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
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Themes This Exemplifies
Thematic resonance and meaning
Key Dialogue
"LEO: "It was a Palestinian splinter group called the Palestine Freedom Front.""
"BARTLET: "If that's the case I want to hear it from Arafat's mouth. I want to hear it from him. A denunciation of violence. I want to see security cooperation with the Israelis.""
"BARTLET: "Would you?" LEO: "No.""