You’re probably thinking that you know the answer to the title’s question: the Gaza War. However, that’s but the latest example of a much deeper factor pushing the world’s two central Jewish communities apart. In a sense, this is a repeat (or extension) of Jewish history – at least over the past 2500 years.

The divide is a matter of worldview. At its core lie two profoundly different ways of seeing the world. As a not too gross generalization, most Israeli Jews are animated by a particularistic ethos. Simply put, this is an ethic rooted in Jewish peoplehood, survival, and the country’s unique circumstances – neighborhood animosity being the prime mover. On the other hand, diaspora Jews – especially those in North America and Europe who make up the brunt of world Jewry outside Israel – tend to express a universalistic ethos. For them, Jewish values are inseparable from broader humanistic values and commitments.

Whose perspective is more attuned to historical Judaism? Neither is “more”; particularism and universalism are equally part and parcel of the Jewish tradition. On the one hand, “You shall be to me a treasured nation”; on the other, “A light unto the nations.” The difference between them is historical i.e., it depends on which “part” of Jewish history one focuses on.

The first millennium or so of Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel was rife with conflict. The Bible is a litany of struggle: slavery in Egypt; fighting off marauding tribes (e.g., Amalek) on the way to Canaan; Joshua’s long campaign of conquest; repeated wars against “recalcitrant” locals; constant fighting with the Philistines (e.g., Samson); expansionist wars by King David; and on and on. In such........

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