It's a wonderful story, and I thank you very much for sharing it. I do have a question -- a respectful one, really! The one thing that isn't clear from this form of Zionism -- or at least your presentation of it -- is: why are you there? That is, what about it has to do with Jews, and the land of Israel? Your friend Ilan, of course, was born there -- and for him, he'd feel at home nowhere else, etc. But, would you? Tthis sort of secular community could (and, to some extent, does) exist in Canada, or the US, or many other places, with less danger for its citizens and less friction with its neighbors. You could teach chess at a community center for inner-city kids in Detroit, or Toronto, or someplace. That is, what puts the Zion in secular Zionism? I'm not saying the question doesn't have answers -- but I do think there's a sense in which this story doesn't seem to address the issue that I would have guessed your friend on the walk was asking -- why do you have to be in Israel?