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Iraq: The Euphrates Edge

Iraq does not border Israel. Jordan and Syria sit between them. But Iraq is on every version of the wide Greater Israel map for one reason: the Euphrates, the "great river" of Genesis 15:18, runs through it from the Syrian border down to the Persian Gulf. On the far side of Iraq is Iran. So Iraq is the last country before the map's eastern edge, and the ground any Israeli war with Iran has to cross.

For Americans, Iraq is also the place where this story is most familiar. Many Americans remember the 2003 invasion, sold on claims of weapons of mass destruction that did not exist, and the thousands of American lives it cost. This page shows how Iraq appears in Greater Israel statements and strategy, what Israel did inside Iraq during the war on Iran, and how Iraq's government has answered.

What Israeli figures have said​

The opposition leader: "the borders of the Bible." In February 2026, after US Ambassador Mike Huckabee told Tucker Carlson that "it would be fine" if Israel took the land from the Nile to the Euphrates, Israel's opposition leader Yair Lapid, of the centrist Yesh Atid party, was asked by the religious outlet Kipa News whether he agreed. He said: "I support anything that will allow the Jews a large, broad, strong land and a safe haven for us, our children and our children's children. That I support." Asked "How broad?" he answered "As broad [as possible]," and that "the borders of the Land of Israel are the borders of the Bible" (The Cradle on X, 24 February 2026; Sunna Files). Asked specifically about Iraq, he answered, as rendered in X's news summary, "Fundamentally, the great, big and vast Israel, as much as possible" (see What Greater Israel Means). Five months later he met nine US senators. Full account: Lapid and "the borders of the Bible".

The settler leader: "part of Iraq." Daniella Weiss, head of the Nachala settlement movement and a former mayor of the settlement of Kedumim, said in a 2024 interview: "From the Euphrates to the Nile…Southern Lebanon is a part of it, all of it. Even parts of Syria, part of Iraq, part of Iran. It's huge" (Going Underground on X, 10 December 2024, video; earlier clip 23 September 2024).

A settler on camera. Asked where Israel's borders are: "From the Euphrates River to the Tigris, virtually all the way to Iraq" (The Compass Report on X, 10 September 2026, video). The Tigris is the river that runs through Baghdad.

"Who is on the other side of the Euphrates?" Avi Lipkin, an Israeli commentator, said in a January 2024 recording: "eventually, our borders will extend from Lebanon to the Great Desert, which is Saudi Arabia, and then from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates. And who is on the other side of the Euphrates? The Kurds!" (Prof. M Reza Salami on X, 26 October 2024, citing Middle East Monitor).

The founders. Herzl's diary: "Area: from the Brook of Egypt to the Euphrates." David Ben-Gurion, 1938: "after we build up a strong force following the establishment of the state--we will abolish the partition of the country and we will expand to the whole Land of Israel" (everything2 writeup quoting Ben-Gurion).

The strategy: break Iraq apart​

Israeli strategists have long treated Iraq less as land to take than as a state to break. Oded Yinon's 1982 essay said Iraq, "rich in oil" but "internally torn," was "guaranteed as a candidate for Israel's targets," that its dissolution was "even more important for us than that of Syria," and that "Every kind of inter-Arab confrontation will assist us in the short run and will shorten the way to the more important aim of breaking up Iraq into denominations as in Syria and in Lebanon" (Activist Post, 30 January 2025). The 1996 "Clean Break" paper, written for Netanyahu by American advisers including Richard Perle and David Wurmser, called for removing Saddam Hussein. Seven years later the United States did it. Full account: Breaking up Iraq, and in the Pentagon section, A Clean Break (1996).

In 2002 Netanyahu, then a private citizen, testified before the US Congress in favor of preemptive action against Iraq, Iran, and Libya (C-SPAN, "Israeli Perspective on Conflict with Iraq"). Iraq was the first of the seven countries General Wesley Clark said the Pentagon planned to take down after 9/11; Iran was the last (see Pentagon plan: the list of wars).

What Israel did inside Iraq during the Iran war​

The Wall Street Journal reported in May 2026: "Israel built a secret military post in Iraq to support its campaign against Iran and launched strikes on Iraqi troops who almost found it early in the war" (Wall Street Journal on X, 9 May 2026; article). The energy and Iran analyst Gregory Brew summarized: "Israel built a base inside Iraq just before the war with Iran. When Iraqi troops investigated, Israel launched air strikes against them. All with US knowledge" (as quoted in a reply on X, 10 May 2026). An Israeli base on Iraqi soil, defended by bombing Iraq's own soldiers, with Washington's knowledge, is the Euphrates edge becoming real. In September 2026 accounts reported drones launched from an Israeli base in Iraq (post, 15 September 2026).

The veteran war correspondent Elijah Magnier described the plan he sees for Iraq in September 2026: "Balkanisation of Iraq (means Kurdistan, Sunnistan and Shiistan) unless Iraq disarm the resistance, has no air force to protect itself and allow Israel to establish a base and then take part of the country in due course" (Elijah Magnier on X, 25 September 2026).

Iraq's answer​

On 14 August 2025 Iraq's Foreign Ministry expressed "the Republic of Iraq's strongest condemnation" of Israeli statements on the "Greater Israel vision," which it said "clearly reveal the expansionist ambitions of this entity" and are "a clear challenge to the rights of countries and a serious breach of international law and the United Nations Charter," requiring "a strong and united response from Arab and international communities" (Alawla TV, 14 August 2025). Another report of the same statement called the remarks "a blatant provocation against state sovereignty" (pbipalestine on Threads). Iraq joined the 31-nation joint statement of 15 August 2025. Iraqi officials have long feared Israeli ties to a breakaway Kurdish state; in 2017 an Iraqi vice president said his country "will not allow the creation of a second Israel in northern Iraq" (Rudaw, as discussed on r/worldnews).

What this means for an American family​

In 2003 Americans were told Iraq was about weapons of mass destruction. Journalist Rula Jebreal warned in March 2026 that the Iran war "will make the Iraq war look like a walk in the park… This is one step further for them dominating the region" (Zeteo on X, 13 March 2026). An American host on Uncharted Territory said on OAN: "Right now, under the Netanyahu government – spearheaded by Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir – Greater Israel is underway. But it can be stopped if the American government and, of course, the Western world comes together and says, 'That's enough. You're not going to kill and expand in our name, using our funds'" (OAN on X, 31 October 2025). The first war on the list cost Americans dearly. The last war on the list is the one now under way.

Evidence rating: CONFIRMED that Israel's opposition leader endorsed "the borders of the Bible" and that Iraq condemned Greater Israel statements as expansionist. CONFIRMED (per the Wall Street Journal) that Israel operated a secret base inside Iraq during the Iran war. STRONG that Israeli strategy has aimed at breaking Iraq apart.

Status: Yair Lapid, Mike Huckabee, Daniella Weiss, Avi Lipkin, Benjamin Netanyahu, Richard Perle, David Wurmser, Wesley Clark, Gregory Brew, Elijah Magnier, and Rula Jebreal are alive. David Ben-Gurion (1973) and Saddam Hussein (2006) are deceased. Nothing on this page states that any living person committed a crime.

Sources​

Research captures: twitter/t27__v313.md through twitter/t27__v324.md

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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