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Why is the land called Israel?
Because that is the biblical name of the Jews: the "Children of Israel". (Israel of course being the other name of Jacob, of whom the Jews are literally children).
Long before there was such a thing as Christianity, Islam, or any other contemporary ism, a land was promised to, and inhabited by, the Jews. It was therefore called Israel: the land of [the Children of] Israel.
In the year 70 CE the Children of Israel were forced out of their land by the Romans, who also destroyed the Holy Temple which stood on Temple Mount. Since then Jerusalem has been the most conquered city in history. Myriads of nations, religions and empires, have tried to lay claim to this holy land. Ironically, Jerusalem, or Israel for that matter, never served as a capital or a primary country for anyone. It was always ruled from without, by regimes who reined over vast empires from their own distant "homelands".
While mighty warriors fought for a land they would never call their own, an exiled Children of Israel never forgot their Homeland. For two thousands years you could ask any Jew "What will happen when your Messiah comes?" and his response would be "Jews will return to our Homeland, Israel".
The first interaction between G-d and the first Jew as recorded in the Torah was G-d's instruction to Abraham to travel "to the land that I will show you"1. Once Abraham was there, G-d said "Do you see this land? I will give this to you and your descendants for eternity".2
That land was Israel.
G-d reaffirmed that promise with Isaac3, and Jacob4. Later, when Jacob's descendants were but mere slaves in Egypt G-d told Moses He would liberate them and lead them to a land, a land He promised to their forefathers.5
In the dessert when the Jews received the Torah, the constitution of Judaism and its laws, some 300 (out of 613) laws were only applicable in, or significantly tied to, the land.
Joshua settled it. King David secured it. King Solomon developed it. For hundreds of years, since their Exodus from Egypt, the Jews knew there is a land G-d chose for His, and their, home. It would be the eternal center of their laws, and life. They were prohibited from ever replacing it with another land.6
Israel is the beginning of our history. It is the destination of our exodus. It is the venue for close to half of our commandments. It is the promise of our prophecies.
Force took the Jews out of Israel. But no force in the world can take Israel out of the Jew.
For thousands of years, wherever they were in the world, Jews sent money to the small, and often poor, communities of their brethren living in Israel. Every Passover Seder was, and is, concluded with the hopeful prayer "next year in Jerusalem".
Wherever the Jew prays, s/he prays facing the direction of one land. In every prayer the Jew prays for the peace of, and return to, one land.
That land is Israel. The Jewish Homeland.
Footnotes
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