The “Greater Israel” narrative—from the Nile to the Euphrates—is a modern reincarnation of antisemitic myths. The claim is not rooted in Israeli policy, strategy and action but in simplified, emotionally charged narratives that cast Israel as expansionist and aggressive.
Israel is not pursuing a “Greater Israel” in any way or form. The lie is amplified by media networks with millions of audiences, such as podcasters and media personalities Tucker Carlson, Piers Morgan and others, dripping with imagery of expansion, domination and religious zeal. It is a recycled narrative of age-old suspicions of Jewish power, repackaged as modern geopolitics against the Jewish state.
I am Tigrinya, from Eritrea—an ancient nation that has endured centuries of Islamist Arab and Ottoman expansion, slavery and European colonialism, including Italian apartheid. We have suffered the very injustices that Israel is falsely accused of. The so-called “Greater Israel” is, however, a lie: the biggest and most dangerous of all.
I know firsthand how dangerous it can be. During the border war between Eritrea and Ethiopia, the Eritrean dictator framed the objective of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front as creating a “Greater Tigray,” a claim the TPLF never pursued. Yet the narrative endured—not because it was true, but because it was simple, emotionally charged and fed on pre-existing suspicions. Once swallowed, facts barely mattered.
The historical record shows repeated efforts across ideological lines to divide land, negotiate borders and accept Palestinian statehood. The Oslo Accords, under left-leaning or center-left leadership, marked a strategic turning point: Israel formally recognized Palestinian leadership and committed to a process explicitly designed to achieve a two-state outcome, though it ultimately lacked a willing partner.
Territorial withdrawals under right-wing leaders nonetheless reinforced the path toward partition. Former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin withdrew from Sinai, giving up territory far larger than Israel itself. Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon dismantled settlements and unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005, which was clear evidence that even right-wing leadership acted in ways contrary to claims of “Greater Israel” expansion.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered far-reaching concessions at Camp David. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert proposed a near-total withdrawal from Judea and Samaria, including East Jerusalem. Even current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly endorsed a demilitarized Palestinian state in his 2009 Bar-Ilan speech. This is not territorial conquest. This is a state repeatedly testing partition.
The strongest proof is Judea and Samaria. These hills form Israel’s only defensible borders, let alone expansionist ambitions. Israel cannot even fully annex what is crucial for its security. Full annexation has never been part of any state strategy; otherwise, the hills would be fully integrated into sovereign territory with mass population transfer, full legal integration and permanent infrastructure. Israel has done none of this.
Israel is a tiny country, roughly the size of New Jersey, without fully secure or universally recognized borders. At the Israeli Conservatism Conference, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman emphasized that Israel must define its borders based on defensible realities. For a nation encircled by hostile actors, this is not expansionism but survival.
Still, persistent international criticism, combined with pressure from successive American administrations, has constrained Israel’s ability to assert what any sovereign state requires: secure, defensible borders. Therefore, the idea that the State of Israel is executing a grand expansionist project from the Nile to the Euphrates is entirely detached from reality.
Those who promote the “Greater Israel” lie are antisemites who deny Israel even the most basic right to defensible, secure borders. Forget a buffer zone for Israel; they turn a blind eye to relentless terrorist attacks and the undeniable security threats.
Historically, antisemitism depicted Jews as conspiratorial, universalist and obsessed with domination. Today, the same toxic myths are recycled—not against individual Jews, but against Israel itself, cast as the collective embodiment of Jewish power.
The current campaign fits this pattern perfectly. It portrays Israel as harboring a grand, mythical territorial ambition—a narrative not only unsupported by its actions, agreements or strategic conduct since its establishment as a modern-day nation in 1948, but actively contradicted and constrained by the state’s repeated withdrawals, negotiated compromises and defensive policies.
The Holocaust did not begin with extermination camps. It began with narratives—blaming Jews for crises, portraying them as dangerous and normalizing suspicion. Ideas precede outcomes.
Israel is surrounded by enemies openly calling and acting for its destruction. Every Israeli defensive war, including the current war against Iran, is about survival, not expansion. They are responses to existential threats from both state and non-state actors. Most were launched as surprises against Israel—from the Yom Kippur War to the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the latter of which was decades in the making.
Since its founding in 1987, Hamas has openly sought to destroy Israel and kill Jews. Hezbollah in Lebanon, another Iranian proxy, is right now bombing the north with supplies that were not eliminated after two years of war.
The Jewish state must defeat these terrorist threats and secure what every sovereign state requires: defensible borders, control of the Jordan River, buffer zones in the north up to the Litani River and the strategic depth of the Golan Heights. This is not expansion; it is self-defense.
The Houthis in Yemen, who just this week launched projectiles at Israel and it joined in the fighting, chant “Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews!” Iran openly calls for Israel’s destruction, digging in after a month of battling the joint U.S.-Israeli operation against its despotic mullah leaders. When regimes repeatedly declare genocidal intent while pursuing nuclear capability, no state can afford to dismiss these threats as rhetoric.
The “Greater Israel” narrative is not just false. It is a dangerous lie, aimed at denying Israel its most fundamental right: self-defense. Every person of conscience must expose it.
