autralian road maps???, page-2

What right do we have to the Holy Land?
In the beginning G-d Created Heaven and Earth (1)....Rashi's commentary on this very first statement of the Torah follows: "..It was not necessary to begin the Torah (whose main objective is to teach commandments) with this verse.... And what is, therefore, the reason that it begins with Genesis? Because if the nations of the world will say to Israel: 'You are robbers because you have conquered with force the lands of the seven nations (of Canaan) they (Israel) can answer: 'He created it (as described in Genesis) and gave it to whomever was proper in His eyes. Of His own will He gave it to them (the non-Jews) and of his own will He took it from them and gave it to us!' Actually it is not necessary to use this quotation from Torah to establish the tenure rights of the people Israel for the land of Israel. This point is made strongly and continually elsewhere in the Torah - even to the extent of identifying the people and the land as one. The accomplishment of Rashi's explanation, quoted above, is to publicize the fact to all people - and to emphasize that the giving of the land is nothing less than an expression of the Divine will. No one denies that the land of Israel was once in gentile hands. Indeed, this fact is conceded in Psalms: "The power of His work He has declared to His people in giving them the heritage of the nations." (2) By the will of the Al-mighty, the land was once the heritage of the nations, and by the will of the Al-mighty it was given to His people.