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← The Denials Against the Record

"Neither Voiced by Any Israeli Politician": The 2024 Denial

Israel runs official social media accounts in Arabic to speak directly to the Arab world. On 28 November 2024, the Israeli government's Arabic account posted a list of what it called lies spread by "some Arabs, Muslims, Palestinians, and their supporters." One item on that list was Greater Israel. The post's answer contained a sentence that can be checked: the slogan "from the Nile to the Euphrates" is "neither voiced by any Israeli politician nor found anywhere in Israel." This page checks it.

Evidence rating: CONFIRMED that the phrase and the map were voiced by Israeli politicians and public figures before and after this denial, and that the whole-land map is displayed in Israeli public life.

The denial, in full​

The fact-checking site Misbar quoted the post in full: "These are lies promoted by some Arabs, Muslims, Palestinians, and their supporters in general. Let's debunk them with facts... Lie: Jews want to expand and seize Lebanon, Jordan, Sinai, and other territories from the Nile to the Euphrates. Fact: This is a blatant lie. Israel's official policies and peace treaties, such as those signed with Egypt and Jordan, reflect a commitment to secure and recognized borders, not territorial expansion. Israel has demonstrated its lack of expansionist ambitions through withdrawals from Sinai, Lebanon, and even Gaza unilaterally. Moreover, the slogan 'from the Nile to the Euphrates' is neither voiced by any Israeli politician nor found anywhere in Israel" (Misbar, 3 December 2024).

Misbar called the post misleading, and set out the record against it. That record has only grown since.

Before the post: what Israeli politicians had already said​

  • Bezalel Smotrich, finance minister, October 2024, six weeks before the post, in the Arte documentary "Israel: Ministers of Chaos": "It is written that the future of Jerusalem is to expand to Damascus" (Middle East Eye, 11 October 2024). Middle East Eye summarized the interview as describing an expansion covering the Palestinian territories and parts of Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. Anadolu, the Turkish state news agency, reported the same week that "calls for 'Greater Israel' are rising from inside the Israeli government," and that according to Smotrich "the eastern bank of the Jordan River will be taken over gradually" (Anadolu Agency on X, 11 October 2024).
  • Smotrich, 2016. Misbar records a remark on Israel's Channel 2, when he was in the Jewish Home party, in which he said "Israel should annex the Syrian capital Damascus, Jordan, and parts of Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq," and says Jordan's Foreign Ministry condemned the remarks when they resurfaced.
  • Smotrich, Paris, March 2023. He spoke from a podium hung with a map of "Greater Israel" that included the Kingdom of Jordan (Times of Israel, 20 March 2023). A photo of that podium, posted in December 2023, was viewed more than 3.2 million times (Censored Men on X, 21 December 2023). See Smotrich in Paris.
  • Hagi Ben Artzi, June 2024. Netanyahu's brother-in-law told a conference of the Uri Tzafon movement, which wants to settle southern Lebanon, that Israel's borders "should be expanded to include Syria — according to what was promised in the Bible," and: "We don't want even one meter beyond the Euphrates River. We are humble. [But] what we were promised, we must conquer" (+972 Magazine).
  • Daniella Weiss, settler leader, to Haaretz: "I want to have for the Jewish nation the promised land from the bible ... from the Euphrates to the Nile. And I'm sure it will be" (Haaretz). A clip of her saying the borders are "From the Euphrates to the Nile" had been viewed more than a million times by January 2024 (Censored Men on X, 31 January 2024).
  • A Times of Israel blog, January 2024. Adrian Stein wrote on the Times of Israel's own blog platform that Genesis 15:18 is "a legal claim and title to all of the lands between the two rivers," and that "Many of us understand Greater Israel to mean exactly what is described in the Bible, which is to say, from the 'Euphrates to the Nile'" (Times of Israel Blogs, 8 January 2024).
  • The Jerusalem Post, September 2024. Two months before the post, the Post's Judaism section ran an article citing the medieval commentator Ramban that Lebanon is inside the biblical borders "and adds that we were obligated and commanded to conquer it." The Post removed the article; it survives in the Internet Archive (archive copy). See The Deleted Jerusalem Post Article on Lebanon.

"Nor found anywhere in Israel"​

The second half of the sentence says the idea is not found anywhere in Israel. The whole-land map is in fact displayed in Israeli public life:

  • On soldiers' uniforms: photographs since 2024 show patches reading Eretz Yisrael HaShlema ("the Complete Land of Israel") or "the Promised Land of Israel" with a map of the biblical borders. A photo of one such badge, posted in June 2024, was viewed more than 1.4 million times (Motasem A Dalloul on X, 16 June 2024). See Greater Israel Patches on Soldiers' Uniforms.
  • In an ambassador's office: Gilad Erdan, as Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, affixed a mezuzah "in the shape of the complete Land of Israel" to remind visitors "that the Land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel, including Judea and Samaria" (Gilad Erdan on X, 19 August 2024, in Hebrew).
  • In kindergartens and on police cars: see The Whole-Land Map at Home.

After the post​

  • February 2026. Yair Lapid, leader of the opposition: "the biblical borders of Israel are very clear," and he wants them "As broad as possible" (Al Jazeera, 24 February 2026).
  • February 2026. Mike Huckabee, the American ambassador, on the land from the Nile to the Euphrates: "It would be fine if they took it all" (The National, 20 February 2026).
  • March 2026. Avi Abelow, an Israeli commentator: "Do not be afraid to say proudly that "of course one day the Jewish people will liberate our Biblical borders from the Euphrates to the Nile"" (Avi Abelow on X, 18 March 2026).
  • June 2026. Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, founder of the Temple Institute, in a video translated by several accounts: "We will soon see the Greater Israel; everything from the Nile to the Euphrates will be in our hands" (Andrea Klein on X, 10 June 2026).
  • August 2026. Smotrich, as captioned by Mario Nawfal: "God promised us the Land of Israel in its full biblical extent. I sincerely hope and pray that one day that vision will be fulfilled" (Mario Nawfal on X, 2 August 2026).

The denial said no Israeli politician voices the map. The finance minister, the opposition leader, and the prime minister's brother-in-law have, and the United States ambassador has endorsed it on camera. The full record of the wide map is on Greater Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates.

Status: Bezalel Smotrich, Hagi Ben Artzi, Daniella Weiss, Adrian Stein, Gilad Erdan, Yair Lapid, Mike Huckabee, Avi Abelow, and Yisrael Ariel are alive. Nothing on this page states that any living person committed a crime.

Sources​

Research captures: twitter/t19__v222.md, twitter/t18__v208.md, twitter/t18__v213.md, twitter/t18__v216.md, twitter/t21__v245.md

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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