Is Israel splitting the Jews?

The recent debate on the divergence of opinion within the Jewish community on Israel seems to highlight the ideological resonance of Israel. This is so for Jews and non-Jews alike. The Israel/Palestine conflict is not a conflict any more, but an ideological battle. The issue has become so polarised that it is impossible to ascertain facts and envisage a solution. Any solution will be seen as defeat of one side. Israel’s symbolical significance is now not only confined to the Jewish community, but is echoed in the ideas propagated by opinion formers when discussing the conflict. Israel is seen as the main cause of instability in the Middle East, the American Jewish lobby as the most powerful. Both assumptions are wrong.
The Middle East is unstable due to a number of factors, including Saudi Arabia's politics. American 'pro-Israel' policy, which incidentally is relatively recent, has only been influenced in part by the Jewish lobby. The geo-political situation, the fact that Israel is a pro-western democracy situated in a strategic location have had much more of an impact. Similarly the defence of Israel as the only free and democratic country in the Middle East is blind to Israeli internal inequalities and Israel’s occupation. This polarisation has exacerbated the split within the Jewish community where a section feels that criticism would be betrayal of one’s own community and others feel lack of criticism is betrayal of Jewish values. The title of a recent Observer article ‘the new Jewish question’ rests on the assumption that Israel has a stake in defining Jewish identity. How far should responsibility for Israeli actions be extended to Jews around the world?