Greater Israel () is an expression with several different biblical and political meanings over time. It is often used, in an irredentist fashion, to refer to the historic or desired borders of the State of Israel.
Territorial claims of Israeli Nationalist or Zionist movements have varied, depending on the time period and different groups of proponents such as Labor Zionist, Revisionist Zionist, or Religious Zionist groups. There are two different primary uses of the term Greater Israel – one referring more narrowly to the area internationally recognized as part of the State of Israel along with the Golan Heights, West Bank, and Gaza Strip; and a second definition referring to the much larger region stretching from the river Nile to the Euphrates.
History
Early Zionism
thumb|right|Zionist leader [[Theodore Herzl c.1898]]
Theodore Herzl, one of the founders of Zionism, was influenced by the Tanakh in his thinking on the borders for a Jewish State in Palestine. In the words of professor of history H.S. Haddad: "Herzl's idea of the geographical extent of the Jewish state was derived from the biblical romance of the Davidic Kingdom."
William Hechler, an English Christian Zionist, also influenced Herzl's thinking on the matter, and Theodore Herzl recorded in his diary that:
<blockquote>Hechler unfolded his Palestine map in our [train] compartment and instructed me by the hour. The northern frontier is to be the mountains facing Cappadocia, the southern, the Suez Canal. Our slogan shall be: "The Palestine of David and Solomon."</blockquote>
The Land of Israel in Jewish history and religion
thumb|An approximation of the "Royal Grant" to Abraham consisting of all the land east of the [[Brook of Egypt and west of the Euphrates, north of Kadesh and south of Hamath, from a 1919 book by Clarence Larkin.]]
The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine. The definitions of the limits of this territory vary between passages in the Hebrew Bible, with specific mentions in Genesis 15, Exodus 23, Numbers 34 and Ezekiel 47. Nine times elsewhere in the Bible, the settled land is referred as "from Dan to Beersheba", and three times it is referred as "from the entrance of Hamath unto the brook of Egypt" (1 Kings 8:65, 1 Chronicles 13:5 and 2 Chronicles 7:8).
The Bible contains three geographical definitions of the Land of Israel:
- The first definition () seems to define the land that was given to all of the children of Abram (Abraham), including Ishmael, Zimran, Jokshan, Midian, etc. It describes a large territory, "from the brook of Egypt to the Euphrates".
- A narrower definition ( and ) refers to the land that was divided between the original Twelve tribes of Israel after they were delivered from Egypt.
- A wider definition (, ) indicating the territory that will be given to the children of Israel slowly throughout the years, as explained in and ).
These biblical limits for the land differ from the borders of established historical Israelite and later Jewish kingdoms, including the United Kingdom of Israel, the two kingdoms of Israel (Samaria) and Judah, the Hasmonean Kingdom, and the Herodian kingdom. At their heights, these realms ruled lands with similar but not identical boundaries.
Judaism defines the land as where Jewish religious law prevailed and excludes territory where it was not applied. It holds that the area is a God-given inheritance of the Jewish people based on the Torah, particularly the books of Genesis, Exodus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, as well as Joshua and the later Prophets. According to the Book of Genesis, the land was first promised by God to Abram's descendants; the text is explicit that this is a covenant between God and Abram for his descendants. Abram's name was later changed to Abraham, with the promise refined to pass through his son Isaac and to the Israelites, descendants of Jacob, Abraham's grandson.
Professor of history H.S. Haddad writes that "Although there are different delineations of the boundaries of the Promised Land in the Bible, the locus of Eretz Israel is clear and constant. Whether it is defined as "from Dan to Beersheba" and "from the desert to the sea" or, more often, from the Nile to the Euphrates, Jerusalem is the centre around which these circles of varying size are drawn."
In 1937, the Peel Commission recommended partition of Mandatory Palestine. In a letter to his son later that year, David Ben-Gurion stated that partition would be acceptable but as a first step. Ben-Gurion wrote that
The same sentiment was recorded by Ben-Gurion on other occasions, such as at a meeting of the Jewish Agency executive in June 1938, as well as by Chaim Weizmann. Ben Gurion said:
Of the Peel Commission's partition plan Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann stated "I know that God promised Palestine to the children of Israel, but I do not know what boundaries He set. I believe they were wider than the ones now proposed and may have included Transjordan."
During early period of the State of Israel
Joel Greenberg writing in The New York Times notes: "At Israel's founding in 1948, the Labor Zionist leadership, which went on to govern Israel in its first three decades of independence, accepted a pragmatic partition of what had been British Palestine into independent Jewish and Arab states. The opposition Revisionist Zionists, who evolved into today's Likud party, sought Eretz Yisrael Ha-Shlema—Greater Israel, or literally, the Whole Land of Israel (shalem, meaning complete)." The capture of the West Bank and Gaza Strip from Jordan and Egypt during the Six-Day War in 1967 led to the growth of the non-parliamentary Movement for Greater Israel and the construction of Israeli settlements. The 1977 elections, which brought Likud to power also had considerable impact on acceptance and rejection of the term. Greenberg notes: <blockquote>THE seed was sown in 1977, when Menachem Begin of Likud brought his party to power for the first time in a stunning election victory over Labor. A decade before, in the 1967 war, Israeli troops had in effect undone the partition accepted in 1948 by overrunning the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Ever since, Mr. Begin had preached undying loyalty to what he called Judea and Samaria (the West Bank lands) and promoted Jewish settlement there. But he did not annex the West Bank and Gaza to Israel after he took office, reflecting a recognition that absorbing the Palestinians could turn Israel into a bi-national state instead of a Jewish one.
Movement for Greater Israel and Gush Emunim
The Movement for Greater Israel (, HaTenu'a Lema'an Eretz Yisrael HaSheleima), also known as the Land of Israel Movement, was a political organisation in Israel during the 1960s and 1970s which subscribed to an ideology of Greater Israel. The organization was formed in July 1967, a month after Israel captured the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights in the Six-Day War. It called on the Israeli government to keep the captured areas and to settle them with Jewish populations. Despite the decrease in support of a Jewish homeland stretching from "the River of Egypt to ... the River Euphrates" among the Religious Zionists, Gush Emunim persisted in that belief in the 1970s and 1980s.
Today
Today the term "Greater Israel" is generally used among Israelis to refer to the territory of the State of Israel and the area internationally recognized as the Palestinian territories, which together form the combined territory of the former Mandatory Palestine minus Trans-Jordan (modern-day Jordan), which was already separated from Palestine by the British in the early 1920s. However, because of ambiguity and controversy surrounding the term, those areas are instead often referred to as the Land of Israel. Some Israelis still interpret "Greater Israel" to include the Golan Heights and Sinai Peninsula, or even as a promise of dominion over the entire area from the Nile River (in modern Egypt) to the Euphrates River (which flows through today's Turkey, Syria, and Iraq). In the present day, the Hardal section of the Religious Zionist movement has brought back claims of a Jewish homeland extending from "the River of Egypt to ... the River Euphrates".
In the 2000s, the annexation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip was part of the platform of the mainstream Israeli Likud party, and of some other, often more extreme Israeli political parties. On September 14, 2008, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, formerly of Likud, remarked that "Greater Israel is over. There is no such thing. Anyone who talks that way is deluding themselves", making this statement just two days before privately reaching out to the Palestinian President with a comprehensive plan that ultimately never was implemented.
Meir Kahane, an ultra-nationalist Knesset member, who founded the American Jewish Defense League and the banned Israeli Kach party, worked towards Greater Israel and other Religious Zionist goals. Kach, Tehiya, and the National Religious Party are parties which supported the idea of a Greater Israel.
In March 2023, the Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the far-right Religious Zionist Party, spoke at a Paris memorial behind a podium featuring a 'Greater Israel' map including Trans-Jordan. This speech has led to tensions with Jordan, while his spokesperson attributed the symbol's presence to the organizers of the event, which was dedicated to a man connected to the Irgun (see above for Irgun emblem). In response to the diplomatic controversy, Israel's Foreign Ministry stated that Israel adheres to the 1994 peace treaty and respects Jordan's sovereignty.
In August 2025, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with i24NEWS that he was on a "historic and spiritual mission" and that he is "very" attached to the vision of Greater Israel, which includes Palestinian areas and possibly also places that are part of Jordan, Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon. He stated that the generation of his parents was responsible for establishing the state, and it is now his duty, as well as that of his generation, to guarantee the survival of this state (Greater Israel). In response to Netanyahu's statements, the foreign ministers from Arab and Muslim nations denounced his assertion regarding "Greater Israel" as a blatant infringement of international law. The nations that expressed this condemnation included Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Gambia, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Maldives, Mauritania, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.
After the start of the 2026 Iran War and the 2026 Lebanon War, Daniel Levy has interpreted that "Greater Israel" for Netanyahu is not only a project of territorial expansion but also of regional dominion.
Israel would have to outbalance Iran and weaken the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
If the Strait of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb are closed by the Irani answer to the war, fossil fuel exports from the Gulf would have to be routed to Israeli ports.
Israel would be the key of an "hexagon of alliances" with India and other Arab, African, Mediterranean and Asian states.
Israeli strategists plan further regional control without holding territory.
Proposed inclusion of areas beyond the borders of the Mandate
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has suggested that Israel is destined to expand to include Jordan, and even beyond, to parts of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and even Iraq. In a documentary film by Arte in 2024, Smotrich said “it is written that the future of Jerusalem is to expand to Damascus.” This view has support in some parts of Israeli society.
Israel’s 2024 incursion into Syria has raised concerns that Israel is pursuing expansion into other countries.
In 2024, Israeli politician Daniella Weiss said: "We know from the Bible that the real borders of Greater Israel are the Euphrates and the Nile".
In February 2026, Mike Huckabee, the United States Ambassador to Israel, told conservative talk-show host Tucker Carlson in an interview that it would be "fine" if Israel took over the entire Middle East.
In academia
Hillel Weiss, a professor at Bar-Ilan University, has promoted the "necessity" of rebuilding the Temple and of Jewish rule over Greater Israel. Francesca Albanese and Amos Goldberg have said that an aim towards a Greater Israel is a factor during the Gaza genocide. According to Yoav Di-Capua, one of the beliefs of the Hardal movement is "the obligation to retrieve the biblical land of Israel in its entirety as a pre-requisite for collective redemption which heralds the arrival of the Messiah".
Controversies
It has been suggested that the blue stripes on the Israeli flag represent the Nile and Euphrates as the boundaries of Eretz Isra'el as promised to the Jews by God according to religious scripture. This claim was at a time made by Yasser Arafat, Iran, and Hamas. However, Danny Rubinstein points out that "Arafat ... added, in interviews that he gave in the past, that the two blue stripes on the Israeli flag represent the Nile and the Euphrates. ... No Israeli, even those who demonstrate understanding for Palestinian distress, will accept the ... nonsense about the blue stripes on the flag, which was designed according to the colours of the traditional tallit (prayer shawl) ..."
The 10 agorot controversy was a conspiracy theory put forth by Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat at a specially convened session of the UN Security Council in Geneva on 25 May 1990. At the session, Arafat claimed that the obverse design of an Israeli ten agorot coin contained a map of Greater Israel.
According to Nadav Shelef, a minority of Religious Zionist groups supported a Jewish homeland extending from "the River of Egypt to ... the River Euphrates" in 1925, whereas modern-day such groups changed the claims to present-day Israel, the Golan Heights, Gaza Strip, and West Bank by 2005. However, the Hardal section of the Religious Zionist groups still supports "the River of Egypt to ... the River Euphrates" claims.