Politics

Those who see plans for a ‘Greater Israel’ are not the first to do so

For more than a century, Jews have been accused of plotting dominion over the Middle East. Recent Israeli military success has simply restored and restoked an age-old canard.

Getty

On May 14, 1948, Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion (standing under a huge portrait of Theodor Herzl, the founder of political Zionism, proclaims the establishment of Israel.

Those who see plans for a ‘Greater Israel’ are not the first to do so

Louis Fishman

last update on 28 Jul 2025

Following the recent 12-day war between Iran and Israel, the Turkish state television channel TRT World aired an in-depth report claiming that Israel’s motivation for the war was linked to the Zionists’ long-standing secret plan to expand its borders to match those of the ancient Jewish kingdom—aka ‘Greater Israel,’ which stretched from the Nile to the Euphrates. The report’s claim was not unique; other outlets have carried similar ideas and debates, sparking much discussion on social media.

Despite Iran not being part of any of these so-called biblical borders, the idea that Zionists aimed to create a homeland beyond the boundaries of Palestine is far from new. Indeed, it was discussed more than a century ago, in the Ottoman Parliament, in the spring of 1911, when Palestinian lawmaker Ruhi al-Khalidi explained to the assembly what immigrant Jews were doing in Palestine, warning that this could also extend to Syria and Iraq.

A Jewish takeover

Both Khalidi and fellow Palestinian parliamentarian Said al-Husseini avoided far-fetched conspiracy theories accusing Jews of controlling the Ottoman Empire, but following the 1908 Young Turk Revolution and the 1909 overthrow of Sultan Abdulhamid II, prominent figures within the Ottoman opposition fuelled fears of a Zionist takeover, claiming that Jews were behind it.

Getty — The signing of the Treaty of Lausanne, in the Palais de Rumine, Lausanne, Switzerland, 24th July 1923. The treaty marks the end of the conflict between the Ottoman Empire and allied countries, which began in 1914.

Such proponents cared little about Palestine. This would have been noted by Khalidi and Husseini, who were part of the ruling Committee of Union and Progress party. For them, it was clear that the conspiracy theories about an all-powerful Zionist Jewish cabal secretly trying to take over Ottoman lands had nothing to do with Palestine and were rooted entirely in antisemitism.

Not surprisingly, antisemitic accusations of a Jewish takeover re-emerged decades later within Turkish Islamist circles. Some even claimed that the modern Turkish state’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, was secretly Jewish. For them, Turkey was the first Jewish state, and Israel was the second. Such claims persisted throughout the Arab world for decades.

Conspiracy theories about an all-powerful Zionist Jewish cabal secretly trying to take over Ottoman lands had nothing to do with Palestine and were rooted entirely in antisemitism

It is in this context that the claim about Israel wanting to extend its borders from the "Nile to the Euphrates" should be understood. It is nothing short of a recycled antisemitic trope from the past that removes all agency from local actors. These examples of antisemitism teach us an important lesson today. The more that Jewish conspiracy theories influence someone, the less capable they are of supporting Palestinians who have actively resisted Zionist colonisation for more than a century.

Just as antisemitic conspiracy theories did little to help the Palestinian cause during the late Ottoman period, so today it harms Palestinians' ongoing struggle to maintain a political presence in their homeland. It also distracts from the real issues and offers no real hope of ending the long injustice they face.

Eretz Israel

So, what is 'Greater Israel' and how should we understand it? Despite what many think, early Zionist history features no secretly plotting Jews in a dark room huddled around a map of the Middle East wondering how to subdue the Ottoman Empire. Everything was quite transparent, Zionist leader Theodore Herzl having a colonial mindset, explaining why he supported a Jewish state in East Africa in 1903 (offered by the British, having failed to get Sultan Abdülhamid II to agree to any Jewish settlement in Palestine).

After voting against Herzl's East Africa plan, the Zionist Organisation gave up plans for an independent state, instead focusing on establishing an autonomous homeland in Palestine, building on a growing Hebrew-speaking community there. This caused fears among the local Palestinian population, leading Khalidi and Husseini to voice their concerns to the Ottoman Parliament in 1911.

The issue of a 'Greater Israel' only became significant after the 1917 British occupation, and the term 'Eretz Israel HaShlemah' (its Hebrew equivalent), only started to be widely used after the 1967 war. During the Mandate era (1920-1948), the Zionist camp was divided.

Some opposed the leadership of David Ben-Gurion's group and instead supported the militant Zionist Vladimir Jabotinsky, who argued that both sides of the Jordan River were promised to the Jews in the Balfour Declaration. This was not based on the 'Biblical homeland', with the Revisionist Zionist map accurately reflecting the British borders of both Palestine and Transjordan (later the Kingdom of Jordan).

AFP — Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion commemorates on July 28, 1948, in Tel Aviv the memory of Theodor Herzl, the founder of political Zionism.

The term Eretz Israel HaShlemah took on a new meaning when Ben-Gurion accepted the 1947 UN Partition Plan; it symbolised the idea that Eretz Israel—which mostly aligned with the borders of Palestine—would be divided. Whether this was simply a strategic compromise by Ben-Gurion, who aimed to keep all of historic mandate Palestine, became irrelevant after Israel took control of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Egypt's Sinai, and Syria's Golan Heights in 1967. Those who supported a Jewish state "from the River to the Sea" backed a 'Greater Israel.'

Core principles

Just over a decade later, Israel returned the Sinai for peace with Egypt, and twice—under Israeli Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Olmert—it nearly reached a deal to return the Golan Heights to Syria. Not surprisingly, with the rise of the right-wing Likud Party in 1977, the term 'Eretz Israel HaShlemah' became more popular, because many of the party's supporters were dedicated followers of Jabotinsky.

With the failure of the Oslo Accords in the 1990s, and the practical expansion of Israeli settlements along with an entrenched occupation of the West Bank, the term has lost significance, mainly because Israel has governed "from the River to the Sea" since 1967, with Gaza also now under Israeli control again. For those born since 2000, neither 'Greater Israel' nor 'Green Line' comes with the debates they used to.

With the rise of the right-wing Likud Party, who supporters were followers of Jabotinsky, the term 'Eretz Israel HaShlemah' became more popular

This reflects the situation that the current Israeli government, aka 'the Greater Israel coalition' aims to uphold. For them, complete land annexation remains their main objective. For the expanding Messianic religious groups, this is now a core principle.

This is seen through their plans to expel Palestinians from Gaza, in hopes of reinstating settlements there, or the daily settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank. For those still support a two-state solution, this presents the biggest obstacle, with Israeli indifference close behind (the latter could be tackled by effective leadership on the centre-left, but this, at least in the near future, does not appear to be on the horizon).

Not unlike the conspiracy theories about the Jewish Ottoman-era plot, and later in the modern Turkish state, the tendency to explain Israeli actions as part of a plan to dominate the Middle East—like the 'Greater Israel' conspiracy theory—suggests that the theorists prefer to believe a fantasy, rather than accept straightforward geopolitical explanations.

Masking trouble

The fall of Syria, Hezbollah's declining influence, and Iran's evident military inferiority say more about their own internal issues than they do about Israel. It can also offer insight into why Türkiye, Saudi Arabia, and Israel have today emerged as the dominant countries in the region.

Ironically, Israel's external strength on the battlefield (specifically, from the air) conceals its greatest period of internal weakness in recent times. It may be able to strike targets more than 1,000km away, but its far-right government has sent the country down a wholly troubling path, having even postponed the expansion of normalisation agreements to include Saudi Arabia in order to sustain a government that prioritises its own survival over the Israelis still being held hostage in Gaza.

Shir Torem/Reuters — A demonstrator holds a sign while taking part in a protest demanding an end to the war in Gaza and the release of all hostages, in Tel Aviv, Israel, July 24, 2025.

It has blinded the Israeli public to a war that is causing starvation in Gaza and allowed war crimes to become normalised, such that claims of genocide are increasingly becoming accepted by Israeli scholars and activists.

Thus, now is the time to focus on Palestine, and not on far-fetched claims of Israeli plans to implement a 'Greater Israel' from the Nile to the Euphrates. France's proposal to recognise a Palestinian state alongside Israel is an important step forward, which hits at the heart of Israeli plans to maintain a 'Greater Israel' from the River to the Sea.

With Washington uninterested in finding real solutions to the ongoing century-long conflict, conspiracy theories will only hinder the pursuit of a just resolution, one that seems more pertinent than ever.

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