ABSTRACT
The chapter draws from politics and history at least as much as from theology. It attempts to briefly explain how the national aspect of Judaism, largely in eclipse for 2000 years of Diaspora, has re-emerged with a vengeance in a manner that could not have been imagined less than 100 years ago, and largely reversed the Jewish theology of war and peace since 1967. A jagged chasm cleaving Israeli society between the overwhelmingly secular Left and the largely religious Right had grown to significant proportions, and has continued to expand since then. Rabbi Zvi Yehudah's ideology was largely adopted by significant parts of Religious Zionist movement, including the National Religious Party. Religious Zionism became particularly influential, ideologically and politically, after 1977, when the rightist Likud party, under Prime Minister Menachem Begin, first came into power. Like the warrior tradition, the modern Israeli pacific tradition began as a political movement.
