A Passionate Yearning for Palestine

Jameel writes about his (and the Jewish people's) passionate yearning for Eretz Yisrael:

It may be intangible, yet the passion for Eretz Yisrael still lives on in our people.

In our heart of hearts, the vast majority of us know it to be true.

I assume Jameel realizes that Palestinians have a passion for Palestine, Iraqis for Iraq, Kenyans for Kenya, Croatians for Croatia, and so on. Many peoples have a passionate, even mystical attachment to their homeland. This is sometimes hard for us Westerners to grasp (except in the context of Eretz Yisrael), since we tend not to have deep roots in our diaspora countries. But it is true for many peoples, especially deeply rooted cultures. Judaism might be somewhat unique in that the passion survived 2000 years of exile, but then all that passion hasn't really pursuaded millions of very passionately faithful Jews in Europe and the US to actually make Aliyah. And of course many hundreds of thousands of Israelis have made or would like to make yeridah.

So much for passion.

I'm afraid this 'passion' is just another example of irrational, emotional faith.