As Israeli and Palestinian negotiators begin a new round of talks, one question will hover in the air: Is there an agreement to be made? Some will express hope. Most will express skepticism. But to answer this question, one must delve deeper into the far greater question of the root cause. We need to know what we are fighting over. What are we killing and being killed for? To attempt to resolve the conflict, we must first know its essence.

The key question is whether at its core, the conflict is rational or existential. A rational conflict is about resources and their fair division.

If our conflict is rational, then it emerges from the simple fact that two peoples live on one land, and therefore need to find a way to share it. A rational conflict should be amenable to rationally negotiated solutions, based on the principle of partition — dividing the land between two states, one for each of the two peoples, one Jewish, one Arab — as has been the governing theme of all negotiation efforts since 1937. Sooner or later, such a solution should bring peace and an end to the conflict.

But increasingly, Israelis, myself among them, have come to wonder whether the essence of the conflict is quite different — not rational, but existential. Is the conflict about the very existence, rather than the size, of the state of Israel?