There has been no shortage of eloquent images and enterprise reporting when it comes to covering the horrible escalation of death and destruction in Israel and the West Bank. PBS' Frontline, for example, has been outstanding in going behind the scenes to show and tell what's happening beyond the headlines this past year.
But there is another level of public-affairs reporting at which television seldom excels: the realm of ideas. Arab and Jew: Return to the Promised Land, a PBS documentary by Baltimore filmmaker Rob Gardner and Pulitzer Prize-winning former New York Times Middle East correspondent David K. Shipler, airing on MPT tonight, is mostly about ideas.
These are the kind of ideas that can make viewers think long after the final credits roll - ideas thought through, distilled and powerfully presented. This is public-affairs television for viewers who want to understand more about the world in which they live, and are willing to hear what folks on both sides of a passionately felt issue believe.
Instead of talking about the personalities of Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat or just piling up one bloody image after another, Arab and Jew starts out with a fast post-World War II history of the region. Then, as the screen fills with images of Jewish refugees from Europe packed aboard rickety ships and Palestinian refugees walking down dusty roads with belongings on their backs, Shipler's narration lays out one of the most important ideas in the film.
"The ideology of return stands at the core of the conflict," Shipler says. "For Israelis, it has meant return of Jews to the Promised Land of the Bible. For Palestinians, it's the hunger to return to the villages that were emptied during the birth of modern Israel. The two peoples have two narratives, two truths fixed in their historical memories."
Arab and Jew examines the power of stories to shape not only historical memory, but the future as well. It's not some hatred in the genes - Arab for Jew, and Jew for Arab - that's causing this horrific bloodbath. It's two narratives, two sets of stories, that refuse to make space for each other.
Understand the stories and how they are passed from one generation to the next, and you will understand the seemingly unimaginable violence in Israel and the West Bank today. So far, all the summits and all the peace processes with all their powerful leaders haven't been able to overcome the power of these stories.
