Skip to main content

← Greater Israel

West Bank, Gaza, and the Golan: The Steps Already Taken

Greater Israel is often described as a far-off dream on a map. It is better understood as a staircase. Each step is a piece of land taken in war, held "for security," filled with settlers, and then written into law or simply never given back. Three steps are already behind us: the Golan Heights (taken from Syria in 1967, annexed in 1981), the West Bank (taken from Jordan in 1967, being annexed in practice), and Gaza (taken from Egypt in 1967, left in 2005, and retaken since 2023). A fourth, about 1,000 square kilometers of new ground in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza, has been taken since October 2023. This page walks up the staircase.

A few terms first. The West Bank is the land west of the Jordan River that Israel took from Jordan in 1967; Israel's government calls it by its biblical names, Judea and Samaria. Under the 1990s Oslo Accords it was split into Areas A, B, and C: A for Palestinian cities, B under shared control, and C, about 60 percent of the land, under full Israeli control. A settlement is a Jewish town built on this land with government approval; an outpost is one built without it, which the government often approves later.

Evidence rating: CONFIRMED that the Golan is annexed, that Israel holds most of Gaza and new ground in Lebanon and Syria, and that ministers say the West Bank will be sovereign Israeli land. STRONG that the West Bank is being annexed in practice.

The West Bank: annexation in practice​

In July 2025 the Knesset, Israel's parliament, voted 71 to 13 for a motion calling to apply Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank (Times of Israel, 23 July 2025). The next month Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich approved the E1 settlement plan east of Jerusalem, saying it "buries the idea of a Palestinian state" (Times of Israel, 14 August 2025). In February 2026 the cabinet restarted formal land registration in the West Bank, suspended since 1968, and Smotrich described the government as "for the first time taking responsibility for the territory as permanent sovereign" (Times of Israel, 19 February 2026; El País, 17 February 2026). By May 2026, according to a summary of his remarks, he was saying: "The time has come for us to finally erase the lines that distinguish between Areas A, B, and C, the entire Land of Israel is ours" (Grok on X, 21 September 2026).

The Israeli analyst Amit Segal, who is close to the government, described Smotrich's "three-year plan to annex Judea and Samaria de facto, if not de jure," and noted: "For the first time in almost 60 years, Jerusalem's borders are expanding" (Amit Segal on X, 16 February 2026). Responsible Statecraft counted 54 new settlements approved in 2025 alone, against 14 in President Biden's four years, and 86 new outposts (Responsible Statecraft, 29 May 2026). On 9 April 2026, two days after the Iran ceasefire was announced, Israel approved 34 more (Globe and Mail, 24 April 2026).

Go deeper:

The Golan: annexed, settled, "forever"​

Israel took the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967, settled it within weeks, and annexed it by law in 1981. The United States recognized Israeli sovereignty in 2019. In December 2024 the army crossed the old ceasefire line into Syria and took the Syrian peak of Mount Hermon. In April 2026 the government agreed to spend $334 million to move thousands of Israeli civilians into the Golan, as The New York Times reported (New York Times, 8 June 2026). In September 2026 Defense Minister Israel Katz said: "The Golan is part of Israel forever. We will not withdraw from Mount Hermon & the security zone" (Zeina Khodr on X, 23 September 2026).

Go deeper: The Golan Heights: Annexed, Settled, "Forever"

Gaza: from withdrawal to "a new border"​

In 2005 Israel removed every soldier and settler from Gaza. Since October 2023 that has been reversed. Ministers have held conferences on "Preparing to Settle Gaza," the army's chief of staff has called the ceasefire line inside Gaza (the Yellow Line) "a new border line" (Times of Israel, 7 December 2025), and in July 2026 Netanyahu ordered the army to "move to 70% control of the Gaza Strip" (Jerusalem Post, 15 July 2026).

Go deeper: Gaza: The Yellow Line and the Resettlement Movement

New ground since 2023: Lebanon and Syria​

By one satellite count Israel has taken about 1,000 square kilometers since October 2023, most of it in southern Lebanon. Netanyahu: "we have created three security zones deep within enemy territory" (NPR, 31 May 2026). These are exactly the lines Smotrich named in April 2026: "In Lebanon, to the Litani, in Syria, Mount Hermon" (Ynetnews, April 2026).

Go deeper:

The pattern​

Each step follows the same order: war, a "temporary" security line, settlers, then law or permanence. None of the land taken since 1967 in the West Bank, the Golan, or East Jerusalem has been given back. Gaza, the one exception, has been retaken. The American scholar Daniel Pipes, who calls the Nile-to-Euphrates charge a calumny, conceded the rule that drives the staircase: Israel's Revisionist right demands "that Israel not give up any part of Eretz Yisrael already under its control" (Middle East Quarterly, 1994). Every step taken becomes the floor for the next one. The war with Iran, the last regional power able to push back, is what makes the next steps possible; see Greater Israel and the Iran War.

Status: Bezalel Smotrich, Amit Segal, Israel Katz, Eyal Zamir, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Daniel Pipes are alive. Nothing on this page states that any living person committed a crime.

Sources​

Research captures: twitter/t22__v253.md through twitter/t22__v264.md, twitter/t29__v340.md

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

Last updated on