“The war of 1948 is not yet over. This war represents only one round in a series of conflicts for which Israel must be fully prepared, in order to expand its borders in all directions.” This statement appears in part of the documents belonging to the General Staff of the Israeli army, indicating that territorial expansion to realize the dream of “Greater Israel” is not a transient policy but a fundamental strategy for the Zionist regime, a strategy that has been pursued since the establishment of the occupying regime.
Existence based on occupation
The Zionist regime’s existence is rooted in occupation. With the deceptive slogan “a land without a people for a people without a land,” it paved the way for the occupation of Palestinian territories. In this regard, Ihsan Al-Faqih, an analyst of Arab world affairs, writes in an article in the newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi: “Lie, lie again, and lie so persistently that people come to believe it; this is the essence of the propaganda of the Zionist project, a project founded on a series of falsehoods and using every possible tool to turn these lies into undeniable truths. Labeling the land of Palestine as ‘without a nation’ was, in fact, an overt attempt to seize Palestinian lands and plunder the history and identity of the Palestinian people. Moreover, through this slogan, they sought not only to deny the history and civilization of the Palestinian nation, but also to reveal their anti-Arab nature and to present themselves as a people superior to the Arabs.”
“Greater Israel”; the core objective of the Zionist regime
For years, the Zionist regime has nurtured the dream of realizing “Greater Israel.” It is evident that achieving this dream can only occur through the occupation of an increasing number of Arab lands, and Zionist officials have at times openly acknowledged this. In the most recent remarks, Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of the Zionist regime, admitted Tel Aviv’s efforts to realize “Greater Israel.” In this regard, he stated, “I am undertaking a historic and spiritual mission and I am emotionally connected to the vision of Greater Israel.” These statements cannot be regarded merely as the personal views of the prime minister of the Zionist regime, as similar positions have previously been expressed by other Zionist officials. For example, Bezalel Yoel Smotrich, the Israeli finance minister, in controversial remarks, declared, “I say clearly and unequivocally; we want a Jewish state whose borders extend from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt to Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. The land of Greater Israel must have extensive reach.” In 2016, he also emphasized Israel’s ambitions toward Arab lands, stating, “The borders of Jerusalem must extend to Damascus, the capital of Syria. Israel must dominate Jordan.” Therefore, the establishment of “Greater Israel” is considered one of the fundamental objectives of the Zionist regime within its foreign policy doctrine.
Building “Greater Israel” on the ruins of Arab lands
The vision of establishing “Greater Israel” on ruins of Arab lands is a long-standing ambition, dating back decades. Over the years, numerous figures within the Zionist regime have addressed this matter, among whom the most prominent is Theodor Herzl, the founder of the Zionist regime, who used the expression “Israelite sovereignty from the Nile to the Euphrates.” In addition, Zev Jabotinsky, the father of the Zionist right wing, in 1923 referred to the Arabs as enemies of the regime and stated that, “to compel them to align with Tel Aviv, it is necessary to crush them underfoot.” Considering that Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of the Zionist regime, has repeatedly and on various occasions cited Jabotinsky as his inspiring figure, it is not difficult to infer his perspective toward the Arab world. The question that arises, however, is what path the Zionists have taken to implement their goal of establishing “Greater Israel” and what they are currently doing.
Insatiable occupation of the Palestinian territory
Currently, approximately 80 years, nearly a century, have passed since the Zionist regime began occupying Palestinian lands. In 1948, the Zionists expelled more than 700,000 Palestinians from their homes and destroyed nearly 500 villages, enabling them to seize large portions of Palestinian territory for themselves. The account, however, extends beyond this, as the Zionists continued to demonstrate an Insatiable appetite for Palestinian lands. In 1967, following the six-day war with the Arabs, they occupied additional parts of Palestinian territory, including the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, from which they withdrew in 2005. On this occasion, they expelled 460,000 Palestinians from their homes. The territorial expansion policy of the Zionist regime has enabled it, over all these years, to occupy 85 percent of the total area of Palestine.
Now, after roughly 80 years of occupation, with only very small portions of the West Bank remaining for Palestinians, the Zionists’ insatiable desire to seize more land to advance their territorial expansion policy remains fully evident. In line with this, the Zionist regime officially acknowledged that in 2024 it launched the largest project in the past 30 years to extend its dominance over the West Bank, seizing 10,640 dunams that year alone, with each dunam equal to 1,000 square meters.
Expansion of occupation in Arab lands; from the Golan to Sinai
Given the Zionist regime’s strategy of “expanding borders in all directions,” it was anticipated that its occupation would not be limited to Palestinian lands and that Tel Aviv’s policy of “territorial expansion” would affect other Arab territories as well. This expectation proved correct, as following the six-day war with the Arabs in 1967, the Zionist regime extended its occupied borders in multiple directions. On this occasion, the Zionists annexed Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights of Syria to their occupied territories. The Zionists did not stop there, and in 1982 they launched a large-scale invasion deep into Lebanon, reaching Beirut. Although they gradually withdrew from Beirut and other occupied areas of Lebanon over time, they maintained an occupation presence in parts of southern Lebanon until Islamic resistance in Lebanon in 2000 forced the invaders and occupiers to leave the southern territories unconditionally. Nonetheless, the Zionists, who harbor the dream of establishing an empire, continue to hold certain areas in southern Lebanon, such as the Shebaa Farms and Kfar Shouba.
Efforts to engulf Syria
It appears that the Zionist regime envisions no limits in its expansion of occupation and pursuit of “territorial development.” A clear example of this approach can be seen in the Zionist regime’s actions over the past six months following the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria. The Zionists, continuing their aggression in Syrian territory, occupied the strategic region of Jabal al-Sheikh (Mount Hermon), the buffer zone leading to the Golan Heights, and extensive parts of the Quneitra Governorate.
James M. Dorsey, a senior member of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang University in Singapore, regarding the Zionist regime’s occupation policy and its aggressive strategy of “territorial expansion,” emphasizes: “These actions carry dangerous signals. The attempt to exert increasing control over Syrian lands, especially those adjacent to the occupied Golan, and the expansion of settlements in the West Bank, indicate that Tel Aviv is pursuing a policy of extending the borders of the Jewish state.” Even the Zionist newspaper Haaretz, raising the question “Is Israel really building an empire across the middle east?” this media says that in light of efforts to occupy Gaza and southern Lebanon, as well as Israel’s movements in the Golan Heights, it is difficult not to speak of Tel Aviv’s intention to create an empire in the region.
Current regional developments, including the commission of the most severe crimes by the Zionists in various countries such as Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, and others, as well as the official and public acknowledgment by senior Tel Aviv officials of their efforts to realize “Greater Israel,” come at a time when the Leader of the Islamic Revolution issued a warning over 30 years ago regarding the same aggressive and criminal mindset of the Zionist regime.
On march 27, 1992 he stated: “The Zionists have not abandoned their goals. They have not retracted the "From the Nile to the Euphrates" objective that they have declared. They still intend to seize the land from the Nile to the Euphrates! However, the Zionists' strategy is to first secure their foothold through deception and trickery, and then, once that foothold is firm, to advance as far as they can using pressure, attacks, murder, and violence.”
Now that the veils of secrecy have been lifted and the masks removed from those who claim to uphold peace and freedom, the question arises: will normalizing relations with the standard-bearers of war, occupation, and colonialism promote security, or will it undermine it?
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