M In Israel: Before Gush Katif was Yamit, and before Yamit was Yerushalim old city. It has come to light that the reinforcents to the fighters of the Rova did not arrive, because Ben Gurion and his cabal did not want to keep the old city and it’s “problems”.
To give Rav Kook’s shita a plug, he defined the Medina as a Keli, which could be filled with either tumah or tahara. From his writings and his works, you know he was not content to leave it in the hands of the seculars. He wrote that love of the land without love of Torah would ultimately turn to hatted for the land and its lovers. Hacham adif minavi, and it is incumbent on us to try to fill the keli with the right stuff.