The Gaza war is a heartbreak. For those who see the grisly images of suffering innocents, for those who love Israel, for those who love peace, for those who hope for the ever-elusive two-state solution, for those who have a heart — it is a heartbreak.

It has a sickening familiarity for those who have followed the Sisyphean ups and downs of the so-called Arab–Israeli peace process for many years.

I have more questions than answers about Gaza. Is Israel's use of force disproportionate to the provocation? Can anyone define "proportionate" in these circumstances? What might Hamas hope to gain and will it? Did this really start with the firing of rockets from Gaza into Israel? (Of course not. It is attached by blood and bone to a much longer history. Do you know the story of Sampson and Delilah? The bit where Sampson brings down the Philistine temple? Did you know that "Palestine" derives from "Philistine?" Did you know that the Philistine temple was in Gaza? Perhaps that started it?)

I've started seeking answers to some of my questions from people who know more than I do about the specific historical, legal, political, military issues, but I can't yet wrestle what they've told me into a coherent news story. So, this morning, I'll fall back on my own small device for explaining the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

It's called Parallel Realities. I wrote a long weekly series for the Strib under that name in 1991 and turned it into a 1992 book, "Parallel Realities, a Jewish/Arab history of Israel/Palestine." The main device was simply to acknowledge that the key events of the long history look differently and have different meanings depending on which side of the ethno-religious divide is telling you the story, or which side has your sympathy. Most of the time, it's not the facts that are in dispute, it's the meaning, and really, it's the context — which facts you choose to emphasize, and which to leave out.

Right to exist
In explaining the current heartbreak, those who sympathize with Israel often emphasize Hamas' denial of Israel's right to exist. (Another question: How exactly does a country acquire the right to exist? How did our country, any country? And who is empowered to challenge or question this right? And why, when a country's right to exist is debated, is that country usually Israel?)

Those who sympathize with the parallel Palestinian reality emphasize the statelessness of the Palestinian people, the encirclement of Gaza, enforced by Israel, which makes it impossible for Gazans to develop an economy, leaves them poor, hungry, oppressed and desperate for a way to strike back at their oppressor.

(Switch back to a pro-Israel perspective and you will hear many things that the Arabs generally —  more specifically the Palestinian Arabs, most especially those who choose to follow the leadership of terrorist Hamas —  have done to bring upon themselves their current plight. And so it goes.)

In the introductory chapter to my little book, I quoted I.F. Stone, the legendary iconoclastic journalist of the 1950s and 60s, who wrote: "Stripped of propaganda and sentiment, the Palestine problem is simply the struggle of two different peoples for the same strip of land."

Too simple an explanation perhaps, but not by much.

Two monologues
Anyway, until I figure out something a bit more up-to-the-minute to report from the front, I offer a link to that opening chapter, posted in 2002 by PBS to provide historical background for a likewise heartbreaking "Frontline" documentary called "Shattered Dreams of Peace."

The device of the chapter, which is titled "Dialogue of Two Monologues," is to intersperse some of the main themes of the two realities, so you can see how they talk past each other. The double narrative runs out just before the Oslo peace process, another breakthrough that didn't quite finish breaking through.

The link is here.

By the way, if you read it to the bottom, you'll find my old, obsolete Strib email address as a way to order a copy. If you would like to communicate with me about a copy, please use eblack [at] minnpost [dot] com.

If you decide to follow the link and want to comment about the chapter, please come back here and, for the sake of peace, please try extra hard to make your comments civil and substantive. Thanks.