(משלי יז א): "טוב פת חרבה ושלוה בה, מבית מלא זבחי ריב" - אמר רבי יוחנן: זו ארץ ישראל, שאפילו אוכל אדם פת ומלח ודר בתוכה, מובטח לו שהוא בן העולם הבא. "מבית מלא זבחי ריב" - זו חוצה לארץ, שהיא מלאה חמסים וגזילות.
"Better is a dry morsel and a quietness therewith, than a house full of feasting with strife" (Prov. 17:1). R. Yochanan said, "Better is a dry morsel" -- the Land of Israel, where even if day after day a man eats no more than a morsel with salt, yet because he lives in the Land he gains the world-to-come; "than a house full of feasting with strife" - than living outside the Land, where acts of violence and robbery are rife.
רבי זירא כי הוה סליק לא"י לא אשכח מברא למעבר נקט במצרא וקעבר. אמר ליה ההוא צדוקי: עמא פזיזא, דקדמיתו פומייכו לאודנייכו אכתי בפזיזותייכו קיימיתו. אמר ליה: דוכתא דמשה ואהרן לא זכו לה אנא מי יימר דזכינא לה:
On his way to the Land of Israel, when R. Zera found no ferry to take him across [the Jordan] he held onto a rope bridge and crossed over. Watching him, a certain heretic sneered: "O you impulsive people, who opened your mouths before you opened your ears! [At Sinai you said, "We will do," before saying "We will hear" - Exod. 24:7]. You still persist in your impulsiveness [exposing yourselves to the danger of drowning]." R. Zera replied, "A Land that neither Moses or Aaron was deemed worthy of entering - who could possibly assure me that I would be deemed worthy of entering?"
Rav Kook, Eretz Cheifetz I
The land of Israel is not some external entity.
It is not merely an external acquisition for the Jewish people.
It is not merely a means of uniting the populace.
It is not merely a means of strengthening our physical existence.
It is not even merely a means of strengthening our spiritual existence.
Rather, the land of Israel has an intrinsic meaning.
It is connected to the Jewish people with the knot of life.
Its very being is suffused with extraordinary qualities.
The extraordinary qualities of the land of Israel and the extraordinary qualities of the Jewish people are two halves of a whole.
A king should not wage other wars before a milchemet mitzvah [war which is commanded]. What is considered as milchemet mitzvah? The war against the seven nations who occupied Eretz Yisrael, the war against Amalek, and a war fought to assist Israel from an enemy which attacks them. Afterwards, he may wage a milchemet hareshut [war which is optional], i.e. a war fought with other nations in order to expand the borders of Israel or magnify its greatness and reputation. There is no need to seek the permission of the court to wage a milchemet mitzvah. Rather, he may go out on his own volition and force the nation to go out with him. In contrast, he may not lead the nation out to wage a milchemet harashut unless a court of seventy one judges approves.
Yeshayahu Leibowitz "On the Significance of the Land of Israel for Judaism."
The Land of Israel is not the cradle of Judaism nor of the Jewish people. From the perspective of Judaism -- the Land of Israel is a task placed on the people of Israel throughout the generations. The essence of this mission is not control of the land, but the implementation of the Torah in the land. The Scroll of Independence of the State of Israel opens with a deliberate lie -- "The Land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people." The Jewish people was not born in the Land of Israel but came to the Land of Israel as a consolidated nation. The traditional historical consciousness of Judaism sees the birth of the nation -- in a symbolic sense -- with Abraham our father, who recognizes the Creator in Iraq. The people of Israel comes to crystallization ("and on this day they became a people.") with the covenant sealed in the desert, in a no-mans land. This teaches us that the Torah is not dependent on the Land of Israel. The Torah was given outside of the land, and the bulk of the people of Israel's existence throughout the generations was outside of the land. The greatest spiritual and religious creativitiy took place in the Exile. Without the task of observance of Torah there is no religious meaning to possessing the land.
Moshe Shamir
My son is named after my brother who fell in the War of Independence. This was exactly twenty years ago when the almonds of 1948 were in full bloom. I am named after my father's brother, who fell in the ranks of the Red Army at the gates of Warsaw. This happened in 1920. My father was named after the brother of his father who was murdered in the Ukraine during a pogrom by rampaging peasants. This was in 1891...Are we now still at the beginning of the road? Att he middle? At the end? I only know this: In this half century in which I live and breathe, fear of death has never left our homes.