n0 > There was no intentional assualt on the k’hal in this battle.
Are you suggesting that attack on kahal was b’shgaga? If you separate the davening, meat, taxes, etc – what do you expect will happen? I would agree that political considerations were not usually primary, they were “for the higher goal” on both sides … for example, power struggle in Vilno with appeals to Russian government, where probably Russians succeeded in using the machlokes to weaken Jewish self-government more than each side benefited from trying to align with the government.