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Jordan: The "Other Bank" of the River

Jordan is the kingdom directly east of Israel and the West Bank. The Jordan River, and the Dead Sea it flows into, form the line between them. Jordan is one of America's closest Arab partners; it hosts American troops, and its king, Abdullah II, has been to the White House many times. It signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994. About half of Jordan's people are of Palestinian origin, many of them refugees or the children of refugees from the wars of 1948 and 1967.

That background matters because Jordan is in the Greater Israel story twice. First, the land itself: early Zionist leaders claimed both banks of the Jordan River, which means today's Kingdom of Jordan too, and maps showing Jordan inside Israel keep appearing, including one used by a sitting Israeli minister in 2023. Second, the people: Jordanians fear that if Israel annexes the West Bank, Palestinians will be pushed across the river into Jordan, turning Jordan into the "alternative homeland" some Israeli leaders have long described. This page covers both.

"The Jordan has two banks"​

Before Israel existed, the Revisionist Zionists led by Ze'ev Jabotinsky, the movement that is the forerunner of Netanyahu's Likud party, claimed both sides of the river. Their song ran, "The Jordan has two banks, this one is ours and the other one too," and the emblem of the Irgun militia showed a map of Palestine and Jordan together under a rifle with the words "Only thus" (Sunna Files, 12 August 2026). At the 1919 Paris Peace Conference the Zionist Organization proposed an eastern border along the Hejaz Railway, well inside today's Jordan, down to the Gulf of Aqaba (same source). Britain split Transjordan off in 1922 and suspended Jewish settlement east of the river.

A Jordanian writer answered that history in September 2026: "Jabotinsky wanted both banks of the Jordan. He never got ours. Posting his portrait only reminds us of what he failed to get" (Tamer Alkhawaldeh on X, 23 September 2026).

What Israeli officials and figures have said and shown​

The Paris map, March 2023. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich gave a speech in Paris from a podium hung with a map of "Greater Israel" that included all of Jordan. In the same speech he said the Palestinians were "an invention" of the last century. Jordan summoned Israel's ambassador. Full account: The Paris map.

The documentary, October 2024. In an Arte documentary, Smotrich said Israel's borders should extend beyond the Jordan River: "Absolutely, but slowly" (Kevork Almassian on X, 10 October 2024, video). The fuller summary of that interview lists Jordan first among the lands he wants inside a Jewish state (DOAM on X, 10 October 2024).

The prime minister, August 2025. Handed an amulet with a map of the Promised Land on i24 television and asked if he connects to the vision of Greater Israel, Netanyahu said "very much." Middle East Eye reported that the vision "includes occupied Palestinian territory as well as parts of Syria, Egypt and Jordan" (Middle East Eye on X, 13 August 2025; article). See Netanyahu's "Very Much".

The opposition leader, February 2026. Yair Lapid, head of the Yesh Atid party and Israel's opposition leader, said "the borders of the Land of Israel are the borders of the Bible" (as quoted by Sunna Files). Opposition and government agree on the map.

The American ambassador, February 2026. Asked by Tucker Carlson whether Israel has a right to the land from the Nile to the Euphrates, US Ambassador Mike Huckabee said, "It would be fine if they took it all" (The Cradle on X, 23 February 2026). Jordan's Foreign Ministry called the remarks "absurd and provocative" and "a blatant violation of international norms and laws" (Voice of Emirates, 21 February 2026), and noted that the ambassador's words contradict the Trump administration's own stated rejection of annexing the West Bank (post quoting Jordan's statement, 21 February 2026).

The settlers. A young settler told a camera: "We'll occupy Transjordan and build settlements there. It's all temporary." Asked where the borders are: "From the Euphrates River to the Tigris, virtually all the way to Iraq." "And the Nile too?" "Yes." The same video quoted Rabbi Yoel Bin Nun, a founder of the settler movement, that the promised borders run between the Nile and the Euphrates (The Compass Report on X, 10 September 2026, video). A Jerusalem Post op-ed in March 2026 said: "Ben-Gurion also made clear that the Jordan River was never meant to be the eastern border of the Land of Israel" (as shown by Zachary Foster on X, 14 March 2026).

The official maps. A research group reported that "In 2024, the Greater Israel Project went mainstream on official Israeli diplomatic channels. The Israeli Foreign Ministry published a map on its official X account that included parts of Jordan, drawing strong condemnation from Jordan" (Young Australians in International Affairs, 2026); Sunna Files dates that Foreign Ministry map to January 2025. Soldiers' shoulder patches with a map that includes all of Jordan have been photographed since 2024 (Mordechai Klompas on X, 16 June 2024).

The West Bank, the Jordan Valley, and the push across the river​

Israel's parliament voted 71 to 13 in July 2025 for a non-binding motion to apply Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank and the Jordan Valley, and Netanyahu said in September 2025, "There will be no Palestinian state to the west of the Jordan River" (as summarized by Grok on X, 21 September 2026). If the West Bank is annexed, three million Palestinians live there. ZNetwork spelled out what that means for Jordan: "a significant portion, if not the entirety of that population, would either flee to Jordan or else Israel would try to force them over the border. That amounts to more than a quarter of Jordan's current population; if this were to happen to the United States, it would be the equivalent of more than 80 million refugees coming across the border" (ZNetwork, December 2024).

This is the "alternative homeland" idea, sometimes put as "Jordan is Palestine." A video circulated as Netanyahu in 1978 has him saying, "There already exists a Palestinian state, and that is Jordan. The majority of Jordan's population is Palestinian" (Eli David on X, 20 February 2025, video). A 1982 strategy essay by a former Israeli Foreign Ministry official, Oded Yinon, called for "the liquidation of Jordan under the present regime and the transfer of power to the Palestinian majority," with "the Arabs to Jordan and the Jews to the areas west of the river." Full account: The alternative homeland.

Jordan's answer​

Jordan's government has answered every step, in its own words:

  • March 2023, on the Paris map: "reckless incitement that is in violation of international norms and the Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty" (Foreign Ministry spokesman Sinan Majali).
  • September 2024, Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi: any Israeli attempt to displace West Bank Palestinians into Jordan would be "a declaration of war" (ZNetwork).
  • 13–14 August 2025, after Netanyahu's "very much": the Foreign Ministry called it "a dangerous and provocative escalation, a threat to the sovereignty of states, and a violation of international law and the UN Charter," dismissed the "futile illusions," and said they "reflect the Israeli government's troubled position and growing international isolation" (Amwal Al Ghad, 14 August 2025; Anadolu via usmuslims.com). Government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani: "a blatant provocation that escalates regional tensions and threatens the sovereignty of states."
  • 15 August 2025: a joint statement by the foreign ministers of 31 Arab and Muslim states, posted by Jordan's Foreign Ministry, called the remarks "a direct threat to Arab national security, to the sovereignty of states" (Jordan's Foreign Ministry on X).
  • 19 August 2025: King Abdullah restated Jordan's rejection of "the so-called 'Greater Israel' vision" to a visiting US congressional delegation of Senators Markwayne Mullin and Joni Ernst and Representatives Jason Smith and Jimmy Panetta (SANA, citing Petra, 19 August 2025). Prime Minister Jafar Hassan: "Reality does not speak of the illusion of a Greater Israel, but of an isolated and rejected Israel" (post, 19 August 2025).
  • August 2025: Jordan brought back compulsory military service for the first time in more than three decades: six thousand young men a year, chosen by lottery. The Jordanian journalist Daoud Kuttab called it "a warning shot: No to 'Greater Israel'" (The New Arab, 26 August 2025).
  • 22–23 September 2026, King Abdullah at the UN General Assembly: "No one in this assembly should think that ambitions will stop at Palestine. The appetite of this Israeli government for expansion has now become a regional threat. And today's Syria is the warning that the international community chooses not to see." And: "Step by calculated step, Israel is testing how far it can go, and every time the international community looks away, Israel learns that it can go even further" (Making Sense of the World on X; NowSinister on X). The Jerusalem Post reported the speech as Jordan saying Israel is hungry for territory (Jerusalem Post, 23 September 2026).

A former Jordanian deputy prime minister, Mamdouh al-Abadi, said it most bluntly: "The first clause in the charter for the establishment of Greater Israel is the subjugation of Transjordan" (as quoted by Elder of Ziyon).

When a country with a peace treaty brings back the draft, it is telling its own people what it expects.

The American part​

Jordan's air defenses shot down Iranian missiles and drones headed for Israel during the Iran war, alongside American forces based in Jordan (Making Sense of the World on X, 23 September 2026). American troops in Jordan were attacked in January 2024 (Ali Abunimah on X, 28 January 2024). The American ambassador to Israel said it "would be fine" if Israel took the land Jordan sits on. In May 2026 Middle East Eye reported, citing anonymous sources, that Jared Kushner and Ambassador Huckabee were pushing to move custodianship of Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque from Jordan to an Israeli-led body; the White House called that "totally false," and Jordan reaffirmed its role under the 1994 treaty (X news summary, June 2026). Americans are being asked to defend the very country whose land appears on the map.

Evidence rating: CONFIRMED that an Israeli minister used a map placing Jordan inside Israel and that Jordan formally protested. CONFIRMED that Jordan's king and government describe Israeli expansion as a threat to Jordan. STRONG that Israeli annexation of the West Bank is designed to push Palestinians into Jordan.

Status: Bezalel Smotrich, Benjamin Netanyahu, Yair Lapid, Mike Huckabee, Yoel Bin Nun, King Abdullah II, Ayman Safadi, Sinan Majali, Mohammad al-Momani, Jafar Hassan, Daoud Kuttab, Mamdouh al-Abadi, Jared Kushner, Markwayne Mullin, Joni Ernst, Jason Smith, and Jimmy Panetta are alive. Ze'ev Jabotinsky (1940) is deceased. Nothing on this page states that any living person committed a crime.

Sources​

Research captures: twitter/t25__v289.md through twitter/t25__v300.md

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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