Whose Land Is It, Anyways?

Israel: In the Beginning of a Love Affair Between a Land and a People
R’ Daniel Burg writes:

One fact that has been repeatedly denied by Mr. Ahmadinejad, for example, is that the Jewish people have had a relationship with the land of Israel for thousands of years. …Why then, asks Rashi, does the Torah begin with such universal language, with the story of creation?  His answer is the following:

For if the nations of the world should say to Israel, “You are robbers, for you conquered by force the lands of the seven nations [of Canaan],” they will reply, “The entire earth belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He; He created it (this we learn from the story of the Creation) and gave it to whomever He deemed proper When He wished, He gave it to them, and when He wished, He took it away from them and gave it to us.”

There is much to take from Rashi’s ancient words, and again, Jews of good faith may differ as to whether his theology is in line with their own views of how God acts in the world. But one thing cannot be denied: the Jewish people, starting with the first one, have always had a relationship with the land.

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But as Rashi demonstrates, there will always be people (like the Iranian president) unwilling to debate policies or decisions on their merits but who would rather undermine a foundation of our faith: our historical claims to the Land.

I respond:

But the problem with that Rashi is that it is theological, not historical. In the world of politics, legal rights are more important than biblical decrees. There is some evidence that Palestinians descend from the inhabitants of the Land just as Jews do (and may have even been Jews, once). That’s not to argue a particular point, only that it’s like telling a non-Jew to keep the seven noachide laws. Well, those are Jewish laws for non-Jews, so why should a non-Jew feel obligated? These are not, I don’t think, views that should be legislated by the secular state.