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Why the Iran War Serves Greater Israel

If you have only heard that Iran is being bombed, you have probably heard one reason: Iran's nuclear program. This page lays out the other reason, the one a growing number of former U.S. officials, Israeli security veterans, economists, and journalists now say out loud. Iran is not inside the Greater Israel map. It sits just east of it, on the far side of the Euphrates River. But Iran is the one regional power that has armed and funded the forces resisting Israel's expansion into Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, and the West Bank. Remove Iran, the argument goes, and nothing stands between Israel's government and the map its ministers keep describing.

"Greater Israel" (in Hebrew Eretz Yisrael HaShlema, "the Whole Land of Israel") ranges from the narrow claim to all land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, to the biblical promise "from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates" (Genesis 15:18). See What Greater Israel Means. The June 2025 "Twelve-Day War" was the first round of direct Israeli and American strikes on Iran; a second, larger U.S.-Israeli war on Iran began on 28 February 2026 (see The June 2025 Twelve-Day War).

Evidence rating: STRONG that Israeli leaders tie defeating Iran to reshaping the region in Israel's favor; MODERATE that clearing the last obstacle to Greater Israel is among the Iran war's purposes. The American voices below are named, on the record, and cited.

What Israel's own leaders said about the sequence​

On 2 October 2024, the English account of Israel's pro-government Channel 14 posted: "At the moment, given that Iran shares no border with Israel and is not a hindrance to the establishment of Greater Israel, Israel should focus on Syria before starting the war with Iran" (C14 News English on X, 2 October 2024). Two months later Assad fell and Israel took the Syrian side of Mount Hermon. Eight months after that came the war with Iran.

During that June 2025 war, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "We will change the face of the Middle East. That is exactly what we are doing" (JNS, June 2025). Two months later, he told i24 television he connects "very much" to the vision of Greater Israel (Times of Israel, 12 August 2025). In the 2026 war, as quoted in Mazen Al-Najjar's essay, he said seven weeks after launching the operation with Donald Trump: "I promised you that we would change the face of the Middle East," and began calling Israel a "regional superpower" (Mazen Al-Najjar, 14 May 2026, as posted by Elisabeth Eliseeva). See "Change the Face of the Middle East".

His finance minister was plainer. Three weeks into the 2026 war, after Hezbollah joined the fighting on Iran's side, Bezalel Smotrich said "the new Israeli border must be the Litani" (Times of Israel, 23 March 2026). In June 2026, as Washington negotiated with Tehran, he said: "The war should end with a political declaration expanding Israel's borders. ... Take territory" (Clash Report on X, 18 June 2026, translation by the account). See Smotrich in 2026.

Americans who named it​

Jeffrey Sachs, the economist, said on 17 June 2025, in the middle of the first Iran war: "The end purpose seems to be to allow Israel to define its own borders in any way that it chooses, as expansively as it chooses" (transcript posted by apocalypseos on X, 19 June 2025). A year later he published "Stop 'Greater Israel' to make peace": "The idea of 'Greater Israel' has been the cause of wars in Iraq, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Iran" (Jeffrey Sachs, 21 June 2026). Go deeper: Jeffrey Sachs.

Douglas Macgregor, the retired U.S. Army colonel, as quoted in March 2026: "Without the complete defeat of Iran, the 'Greater Israel' project has no chance. Netanyahu understands this perfectly" (Paramjeet Singh Berwal on X, 5 March 2026).

Paul Craig Roberts, assistant secretary of the Treasury under Ronald Reagan, said in April 2026, as Middle East Monitor reported, that the war against Iran "cannot be understood in isolation from what he described as a wider agenda linked to the so-called 'Greater Israel' project," and that Israel "has succeeded in pushing US President Donald Trump into confrontation with Iran, something it had failed to achieve with previous US presidents" (Middle East Monitor, 28 April 2026).

These and other former officials are on Former U.S. Officials Name the Project.

An Israeli colonel's warning​

The most striking warning came from inside Israel's security establishment. Colonel (res.) Udi Evental, a strategy and policy specialist, wrote in April 2026 that the Israeli army's doctrine of prevention "quickly moved up a level and became 'forward defense' - a euphemism for territorial occupation - through the creation of 'security zones' in Gaza, Syria, and Lebanon," and that "a security-ideological coalition has now emerged in Israel, using a defensive-preventive narrative to advance a messianic agenda of 'Greater Israel'" (Udi Evental on X, 25 April 2026). Go deeper: An Israeli Colonel's Warning.

Not only land: regional dominion​

Daniel Levy, a former Israeli negotiator, has argued that after the 2026 Iran and Lebanon wars, Greater Israel for Netanyahu "is not only a project of territorial expansion but also of regional dominion": Israel outbalancing Iran, weakening the Gulf states, and becoming the hub of a new "hexagon of alliances" (as summarized in the Wikipedia text posted by noctem26 on X, 17 June 2026). Netanyahu himself called, during the war, for "the extension of oil and gas pipelines westward through the Arabian Peninsula to Israel, and then to our ports on the Mediterranean" (as quoted by Mazen Al-Najjar). Go deeper: Regional Dominion.

What Israel's adversaries hear​

Israel's adversaries describe the war in the same terms, which is itself evidence of how the region reads Israel's leaders. Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, said Washington does not accept "a strong, independent Iran on the eastern border of the false, illegitimate geography of Greater Israel — that is, east of the Euphrates River" (see Iran and the Greater Israel Map). Former president Hassan Rouhani, as summarized in English by a listener, said in August 2025 that the goals of the war were "to overthrow the Islamic Republic" and to "Create a New Regional Order (Greater Israel / A New Middle East Order)," and that the nuclear issue "was only an excuse" (Alireza Talakoubnejad on X, August 2025). Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc called Israel's planned buffer zone south of the Litani River part of "its historical dream of a 'Greater Israel'" (Middle East Observer on X, 3 April 2026). Yemen's Abdulmalik al-Houthi said the U.S.-Israeli plan targets "changing the Middle East" to establish "Greater Israel" (Middle East Observer on X, 30 July 2026).

The obstacle idea is not new​

In 2004, the Islamic scholar Imran Hosein predicted the emergence of a Greater Israel "from the Nile to the Euphrates," and named the only two obstacles: "Pakistan's nuclear weapons" and "Iran's missiles" (Ragged Trousered Philanderer on X, 7 March 2026). In March 2026, the educator Jiang Xueqin told Tucker Carlson that "the main restraint on Israel achieving 'Greater Israel' is not Iran, but the U.S., which guarantees military security for the GCC countries," and that "If Israel wants to dominate the Middle East, it must figure out how to remove the U.S. from the equation" (RusWar on X, 22 March 2026, caption summary of the interview). In another interview he put it more bluntly: "That's why they're attacking Lebanon and why Zionists want Trump to destroy Iran" (Kartik on X, 11 August 2026).

Doubts inside Washington​

Three weeks after 7 October 2023, the journalist Sharmine Narwani reported that a Pentagon source told her there was "a growing sentiment that Israel is manipulating the US into a war with Iran": "The Israelis say they don't want a regional war on multiple fronts, but then keep striking Iranian allies everywhere, and leave us to deal with the fallout" (Sharmine Narwani on X, 25 October 2023). The Executive Intelligence Review reported that "a classified National Intelligence Council report, completed a week before Feb. 28, concluded that even large-scale military assault would not lead to regime change in Iran" (EIR, 8 March 2026). In July 2026 a widely shared post said Senator Mark Warner had reviewed the intelligence and found "absolutly no imminent danger" (Furkan Gözükara on X, 28 July 2026, the poster's summary).

How the war ended, and what it bought​

The opinion essay "Stop Greater Israel to make peace," published by Al Jazeera and on Jeffrey Sachs's own site in June 2026, recorded that "On June 14, the United States and Iran agreed to a framework to end their war. The Strait of Hormuz is to reopen, the bombing of Lebanon is to end," "After more than 100 days of war" (Al Jazeera opinion, 21 June 2026). The writer Craig Murray wrote that Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon was "the very first" point of the Iran-U.S. memorandum, and concluded: "Greater Israel is not a concept. It is a reality being created before our very eyes. ... Annexation is plainly the goal and expansion of Greater Israel at least to the Litani River and probably further" (Consortium News, 30 June 2026).

While the world watched Iran, the settlements grew. Israel's cabinet approved 34 new West Bank settlements on 9 April 2026, 48 hours after a ceasefire with Iran was announced, and settler violence rose to "more than six attacks per day" after the Iran war began (see Settlements Approved During the Iran War). And Americans pay: the ambassador's endorsement, the Speaker's endorsement, the aid, and the troops are on America's Part in Greater Israel. The calls for American soldiers on Iranian soil are in American Soldiers on the Ground in Iran.

Status: Benjamin Netanyahu, Bezalel Smotrich, Donald Trump, Jeffrey Sachs, Douglas Macgregor, Paul Craig Roberts, Udi Evental, Daniel Levy, Mojtaba Khamenei, Hassan Rouhani, Abdulmalik al-Houthi, Imran Hosein, Jiang Xueqin, Tucker Carlson, Sharmine Narwani, Mark Warner, Craig Murray, and Mazen Al-Najjar are alive. Nothing on this page states that any of them committed a crime.

Sources​

Research captures: twitter/t18__v209.md, twitter/t18__v211.md, twitter/t18__v216.md, twitter/t19__v228.md, twitter/t21__v242.md, twitter/t21__v252.md, twitter/t22__v256.md, twitter/t22__v258.md, twitter/t22__v262.md, twitter/t22__v263.md, twitter/t29__v348.md

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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