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Smotrich in 2026: The Litani, the Hermon, and "Take Territory"

The second war on Iran began at the end of February 2026. Hezbollah in Lebanon joined it on Iran's side. Within three weeks, Israel's finance minister was saying out loud what the war should produce: new borders. This page walks through his words during 2026, month by month. The Litani River runs east to west across southern Lebanon, about 20 miles north of the Israeli border; Mount Hermon is the high ground where Israel, Lebanon, and Syria meet.

March: "The new Israeli border must be the Litani"​

In a radio interview on 23 March 2026, Smotrich said the campaign "needs to end with a different reality entirely, both with the Hezbollah decision but also with the change of Israel's borders," and: "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," noted that "Netanyahu's office does not immediately respond," and added that Smotrich "often makes comments that go beyond official Israeli policy" (Times of Israel liveblog, 23 March 2026; Jerusalem Post, 23 March 2026).

The next day, Defense Minister Israel Katz announced a "security zone" in southern Lebanon up to the Litani, where displaced residents would not return. What the finance minister called a border, the defense minister built as a zone. See Lebanon and Syria Since 2024.

The Knesset followed. A day earlier, Otzma Yehudit lawmaker Yitzhak Kroizer said "There's no choice but to expel and clear out the area up to the Litani River… sovereignty and settlement" (BZKanging on X, 22 March 2026, caption translation). On 5 April, eighteen Knesset members pressed the government "to occupy and fully control southern Lebanon up to the Litani River" (The Conversation, 8 April 2026). On 14 March a Jerusalem Post op-ed argued that "Israel must control the territory up to the Litani River and resettle it with Jewish communities," and that "Ben-Gurion also made clear that the Jordan River was never meant to be the eastern border of the Land of Israel" (Zachary Foster on X quoting the op-ed, 14 March 2026).

April: Ma'oz Tzur, "expand our borders"​

On 9 April 2026, at the dedication of Ma'oz Tzur, a new settlement in the West Bank's Binyamin region where 11 families, including army reservists, moved in, Smotrich laid out a border program. As reported by Ynet:

  • "There will be a political leg in Gaza that will expand our borders."
  • "There will be a conclusive political leg in Lebanon that will expand our borders to the Litani."
  • "There will be a conclusive political leg in Syria with the Hermon crown and the buffer zone."
  • "That's what they respect in our neighborhood and that's what is needed to secure our security."

(Ynetnews, April 2026) Another rendering, carried on X's trending page: "There will be expansion in Gaza that will extend our borders. In Lebanon, to the Litani, in Syria, Mount Hermon, parts of the north, south, and east" (X trending, 9 April 2026, 86,676 posts). A video of the speech posted by Ihab Hassan reached 828,000 views (Ihab Hassan on X, 9 April 2026). The historian William Dalrymple wrote: "The plan for a Greater Israel extending over the West Bank into Lebanon and Syria laid out with great clarity by a senior government minister" (William Dalrymple on X, 9 April 2026).

Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana attended and said: "This is our land. We are not here as guests; we are not here temporarily." Defense Minister Katz sent recorded greetings (JNS, 11 April 2026). The same day, the cabinet's approval of 34 new West Bank settlements was reported; see Settlements Approved During the Iran War. As Sovereign Media summarized the speech, the expansion "has two legs: a military one and a diplomatic one" (Sovereign Media on X, 13 April 2026).

May: "Take territory from them"​

"Our enemies do not care how many terrorists we kill or how many bombs we drop on them. What matters to them is that we take territory from them" (IslanderWORLD on X, May 2026, caption translation). The same month, as summarized by Grok: "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). Areas A, B, and C are the Oslo-era zones of the West Bank; erasing them means erasing the Palestinian self-rule areas.

June: "Engrave the price of defeat"​

On 18 June 2026, as the United States negotiated with Iran: "The war should end with a political declaration expanding Israel's borders. You want to engrave the price of defeat into the Middle East. Take territory. Whoever attacks us must pay painful, irreversible prices" (Clash Report on X, 18 June 2026, translation by the account, 76,500 views). In a later article, Jeffrey Sachs quoted Smotrich refusing to relinquish military control of the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanese or Syrian territory: "We won't commit suicide to make them happy" (Jeffrey Sachs, 21 June 2026).

August: "Its full biblical extent"​

"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, caption). A Facebook account of an interview described him saying his faith extends to a "great and broad Land of Israel," that this is not necessarily his immediate government program, and that part of the work is left, in his words, to God (Facebook reel). The immediate program is the Litani and the Hermon; the horizon is the biblical map.

Reading the year​

In twelve months, a finance minister went from "the new border must be the Litani" to a four-front border program at a settlement ceremony to a hope for "the full biblical extent." The prime minister's office did not repudiate any of it. The army, meanwhile, held the zones he named. As the Outlook India magazine noted, "the Greater Israel theory has been getting increased media attention since the US-Israel war on Iran began," and the Litani speech was its clearest evidence (Outlook India on X, 13 April 2026).

Evidence rating for "Smotrich called during the Iran war for Israel's borders to expand to the Litani and the Hermon": CONFIRMED.

Status: Bezalel Smotrich, Israel Katz, Amir Ohana, Yitzhak Kroizer, Jeffrey Sachs, William Dalrymple, and Zachary Foster are alive. Nothing on this page states that any of them committed a crime.

Sources​

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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