In recent days, the Israeli military has launched renewed aggression against southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut, aiming to enforce a policy of deterrence and weaken Lebanese resistance. These attacks signify a new phase of escalation amid the increasing aggression towards Lebanon and are part of Israel’s broader project to establish control over vital territories in Lebanon. This escalation is not merely a reaction to direct threats but rather a preemptive measure to solidify Israeli dominance over the northern region of occupied Palestine adjacent to Lebanon, and potentially beyond.
What is occurring today is not merely a transient military escalation; rather, it constitutes a component of a profound ideological project rooted in the myths of the so-called “Greater Israel.” Numerous historical and religious studies have demonstrated the falsehood of these claims, which aim to impose a new reality on the ground. The Jewish faith, Zionist ideology, or the concept of Greater Israel, is fundamentally based on a distorted interpretation of the Torah. This interpretation asserts that the borders of the Israeli state extend from the Nile River in Egypt to the Euphrates River in Syria and Iraq. This notion is inscribed at the entrance of the Knesset: “And when the Lord appeared to Abraham, He granted him the Holy Land from the Nile to the Euphrates.” It is also prevalent in educational curricula: “On that day, God made a covenant with Abram, saying: I will give your descendants this land, from the valley of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
This plan was outlined early on, beginning with the statements made by the founder of global Zionism, Theodor Herzl, in 1904, when he explicitly declared that the borders of the State of Israel would extend “from the Nile to the Euphrates.” This assertion was echoed by Rabbi Fishman in 1947 during his testimony to the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine. The situation remained consistent until 2014, when Israeli activists circulated a map on the social media platform Facebook, referring to it as the “Greater Israel” or “Kingdom of David,” which included territories of Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and parts of Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
The recent escalation of Israel’s military actions in northern Gaza, and the expansion of the conflict underscore its persistent ambition to realize the vision of a Greater Israel. This objective is not only a long-standing aspiration but is also openly articulated by Israeli officials. Many Israeli officers are currently echoing sentiments on social media that assert, “All lands belong to us, including Gaza, Lebanon, and the entirety of the Promised Land.” Such ideologies and principles form the foundation upon which the Likud Party, led by Prime Minister Netanyahu, was established.
In March of last year, the finance minister of the occupying government, Bezalel Smotrich, sparked considerable controversy with remarks suggesting that a “Palestinian people” did not exist a century ago. Smotrich, who also serves as the head of the Religious Zionism party, made these statements while in the French capital, standing in front of a map of “Greater Israel,” which includes not only Palestine but also Jordan and parts of Lebanon and Syria. This prompted a protest from Jordan, leading to the summoning of the Israeli ambassador. Currently, as the occupying state seeks to displace over two million residents of Gaza, it appears that “Israel” has initiated its expansionist agenda. This notion was affirmed by Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, who stated that “the size of Gaza after the war will not return to what it was before.”
The issue extends beyond Smotrich’s assertions; Netanyahu, the leader of the right-wing Likud party, presented two maps during his speech at the United Nations General Assembly on September 27, which depicted the West Bank and Gaza Strip as part of Israel. The first map was labelled “the blessing” and the second “the curse,” both of which the Palestinian Foreign Ministry deemed as a display revealing the expansionist agendas of the far-right. In essence, these maps conveyed a clear message to the world: Israel envisions itself as a state with expanded borders and rejects any settlement that does not fulfil these expansionist objectives. This symbolic act, which raised concerns among numerous countries, was not merely a gesture but a declaration of Israel’s intent to implement policies of fait accompli.
Before Netanyahu’s address, the extremist rabbi Eliezer Melamed presented a similar vision of this purported state on the far-right Hebrew site “Yeshiva” on July 15, 2023, claiming in an article that the borders of “Greater Israel” extend from the Nile River in Egypt to the Euphrates River in Iraq.
Most importantly, recently, the Israeli Knesset approved a bill that asserts the legitimacy of Greater Israel as a rightful claim of the Jewish people. Additionally, its members voted in favour of a resolution that rejects the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, viewing Palestine as an existential threat to the Jewish population. It indicates that Israel neither acknowledges nor seeks peace nor considers establishing frameworks to safeguard it. Despite the persistent hopes of Arab nations for peace, the undeniable reality is that the conflict with Israel extends beyond territorial disputes; it is fundamentally a struggle for existence. Current events merely reflect Israel’s continued commitment to its expansionist strategy.
What Netanyahu is currently undertaking is an expansionist project that disregards borders and thrives on the weakness of the international stance and the silence of countries that have opted for normalization, mistakenly believing that this will shield them from the flames of this aggression. The harsh reality is that every inch of Arab land, from Lebanon and Syria to Jordan and Egypt, and even the Arabian Peninsula, has become a target in the crosshairs of the American-backed Zionist project. The undeniable truth now is that the Greater Middle East initiative, long championed by the United States, is merely synonymous with the concept of a Greater Israel. This initiative is supported by Biden, who openly identifies as a Zionist, and is undoubtedly backed by American interests, as the United States will not allow the Middle East, with all its natural resources, to become an easy prize for Russia and China.
We stand at a critical crossroads; either the Arab nation and the world must act to halt these expansionist ambitions before it is too late, or history will witness how “Israel” redraws the maps of the region according to its Talmudic vision, plunging the Middle East into a cycle of wars and humanitarian disasters that seem never-ending.
Dr. Marwa El-Shinawy – Academic and Writer
