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← The Denials Against the Record

"No Territorial Claims": The August 2025 Denial

On 31 August 2025, the official English account of Israel's prime minister posted two sentences: "Contrary to the false accusation, Israel has no territorial claims against any neighboring countries. Our goal is peace and security" (Prime Minister of Israel on X, 31 August 2025). It is the most direct official denial on record, and fact-checkers and defenders of Israel still quote it. This page shows why it was written, what it carefully leaves out, and what Israel's own government said and did in the year after it.

Evidence rating: CONFIRMED that within a year of this denial, Israel's finance minister, defense minister, and prime minister publicly claimed or held Lebanese and Syrian territory "forever."

Why the denial was posted​

Two and a half weeks earlier, on 12 August 2025, Netanyahu sat for an interview on i24, an Israeli television channel. The interviewer, a former right-wing member of the Knesset named Sharon Gal, handed him an amulet showing "a map of the Promised Land" and asked whether he connects to the vision. Netanyahu answered: "Very much." When Gal said "It is Greater Israel," Netanyahu spoke of a "historic and spiritual" mission (Times of Israel liveblog, 12 August 2025).

The reaction was immediate. Jordan called the remarks "a dangerous and provocative escalation, a threat to the sovereignty of states" (Amwal Al Ghad, 14 August 2025). Iraq said they "clearly reveal the expansionist ambitions" (Alawla TV, 14 August 2025). Pakistan's foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, told an Organization of Islamic Cooperation meeting in Jeddah that his country joined statements by "31 states and the secretaries-general of OIC, the League of Arab States & the GCC" condemning the remarks (Ocean News on X, 25 August 2025). Six days after Dar spoke, the prime minister's office posted its denial. The full reaction is on How 31 Governments Answered "Very Much".

The denial did not withdraw the words "Very much." It did not say Netanyahu had been misunderstood. It did not mention the West Bank, Gaza, or the Golan.

What "neighboring countries" leaves out​

The wording is precise. Israel does not regard the West Bank ("Judea and Samaria"), Gaza, or the Golan Heights as land belonging to a neighboring country. The Golan was annexed by Israeli law in 1981. The West Bank is, in the government's own guidelines, part of the Land of Israel over which the Jewish people hold "an exclusive and inalienable right" (Times of Israel, 28 December 2022). So the denial is true only in the sense the government chose: it denies claims on "countries," while the whole first map of Greater Israel, the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan, stays claimed. See What Greater Israel Means: The Three Maps.

What the government said and did next​

Put the dates in order and the denial falls apart even on its own terms.

  • September 2025. Netanyahu said: "There will be no Palestinian state to the west of the Jordan River" (as summarized by Grok on X, 21 September 2026). At the City of David in Jerusalem he said: "This is our city. It is forever our city. It will never be divided again and there will be no Palestinian State" (American Rhetoric transcript, 15 September 2025).
  • December 2025. Smotrich thanked Netanyahu "for his support of the revolution we are carrying out in Judea and Samaria… Together we will kill the idea of a Palestinian state," and announced "To declare and regulate 19 new settlements! We continue to make history" (as compiled in a Palestinian research chronicle).
  • 23 March 2026. During the war on Iran, after Hezbollah joined the fighting, Smotrich said on the radio: "I say here definitively…in every room and in every discussion, too: the new Israeli border must be the Litani." The Times of Israel called it "the most explicit yet by a senior Israeli official on seizing Lebanese territory," and noted that "Netanyahu's office does not immediately respond" (Times of Israel liveblog, 23 March 2026). The next day Defense Minister Israel Katz announced a "security zone" up to the Litani River.
  • April 2026. At the dedication of a new West Bank settlement, Smotrich listed the borders: "There will be a political leg in Gaza that will expand our borders," "a conclusive political leg in Lebanon that will expand our borders to the Litani," and "a conclusive political leg in Syria with the Hermon crown and the buffer zone" (Ynetnews, April 2026). Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana stood with him; Katz sent recorded greetings (JNS, 11 April 2026).
  • May 2026. Netanyahu: "We have changed our security concept. We initiate, we attack, and we have created three security zones deep within enemy territory" (NPR, 31 May 2026).
  • June 2026. Smotrich, as translated by Clash Report: "The war should end with a political declaration expanding Israel's borders. ... Take territory" (Clash Report on X, 18 June 2026). Netanyahu, in the same account's translation: "Israel stays in the yellow security zone that keeps us safe. And this is a huge achievement. Huge!" (Clash Report on X, 27 June 2026).
  • August 2026. Israel's Foreign Ministry posted a graphic that placed part of southern Lebanon inside Israel, then deleted it and called it "an artificial intelligence error" (The New Arab, 10 August 2026).
  • September 2026. Katz, answering Syria's president: "The Golan is part of Israel forever. We will not withdraw from Mount Hermon & the security zone" (Zeina Khodr on X, 23 September 2026). Another rendering of the same statement: "any area we control will belong to us forever" (dana on X, 23 September 2026). At the United Nations, Netanyahu told Syria's president that "The Jews have been on the Golan Heights since the days of Moses. You can read it in the Bible" (Mario Nawfal on X, 24 September 2026).

A country with "no territorial claims against any neighboring countries" does not have a finance minister naming a Lebanese river as its new border, a defense minister saying Syrian ground will be kept forever, and a prime minister who says his army "stays." See Smotrich in 2026: The Litani, the Hermon, and "Take Territory" and Lebanon and Syria Since 2024.

The silence that goes with the denial​

The denial pattern has two parts: a written sentence when foreign governments complain, and silence when ministers speak. When Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu shared a post promoting a shirt reading "Occupation Now" with a map that included Sinai, "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office declined to comment," according to the fact-checking site Misbar (Misbar, 3 December 2024). When Smotrich named the Litani, the prime minister's office did "not immediately respond." None of these ministers has been removed. Netanyahu depends on their parties for his majority.

Status: Benjamin Netanyahu, Bezalel Smotrich, Israel Katz, Amir Ohana, Amichai Eliyahu, Sharon Gal, and Ishaq Dar are alive. Nothing on this page states that any living person committed a crime.

Sources​

Research captures: twitter/t21__v246.md, twitter/t22__v258.md, twitter/t22__v261.md, twitter/t22__v259.md, twitter/t18__v210.md

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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