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← Egypt and the Sinai

Voices Calling for the Sinai, from Herzl to 2026

Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in 1982. People who deny that a Greater Israel project exists point to that return more than to anything else. This page shows that the Sinai never left the map in Israeli thinking: from the founder of Zionism, through a 1982 strategy essay written as the withdrawal was happening, to a sitting cabinet minister, a rabbi at a conference with lawmakers, and a rabbi described as a teacher of today's security minister. The return was a treaty. The claim was never given up.

The founders​

  • Theodor Herzl, the founder of political Zionism, wrote in his diary of discussing "the demands we will make. Area: from the Brook of Egypt to the Euphrates" (Complete Diaries, Vol. II, p. 711, as quoted by Prof. M Reza Salami on X, 26 October 2024). A 2024 study cited by Fair Observer says his diaries included "the Sinai, Egyptian Palestine, and Cyprus" in the land of Israel (Fair Observer, 19 December 2024).
  • Rabbi Fischmann of the Jewish Agency testified to the UN Special Committee on Palestine on 9 July 1947: "The Promised Land extends from the River of Egypt to the Euphrates. It includes parts of Syria and Lebanon" (as quoted by WarNuse on X, 13 June 2025).
  • 1948: the Israeli army "nearly conquered Sinai & the Gaza Strip in late December 1948, only held back by intense US and British pressure," according to the historian Zachary Foster (Zachary Foster on X, 3 April 2026).
  • 1956 and 1967: Israel took the Sinai twice more.

The 1982 essay written during the withdrawal​

As Israel prepared to hand the Sinai back, Oded Yinon, a former Foreign Ministry official, published "A Strategy for Israel in the 1980s" in the World Zionist Organization's journal Kivunim. According to Kit Klarenberg, Yinon "considered it a 'political priority' to regain control of the Sinai peninsula," "slammed" the Camp David accords, and "looked forward to Cairo '[providing] Israel with the excuse to take the Sinai back into our hands,'" because of its "strategic, economic and energy" value. His words: "Israel will be forced to act directly or indirectly in order to regain control over Sinai…for the long run. Egypt does not constitute a military strategic problem due to its internal conflicts and it could be driven back to the post 1967 war situation in no more than one day" (Kit Klarenberg, 30 January 2025). He also wrote: "Breaking Egypt down territorially into distinct geographical regions is the political aim of Israel" (Ismailoğlu Pasha on X). More on The Yinon Plan of 1982.

The voices of the Gaza war and the Iran war​

DateWhoWords
Jan 2024Rabbi Uzi Sharbaf, at a conference attended by Knesset membersCalled for the "liberation" of Sinai up to the Nile as "integral parts of the land of Israel" (video)
Jul 2024Heritage Minister Amichai EliyahuShared a call to occupy Sinai; promoted "Occupation Now" shirts with a map including Sinai (Globe Eye News)
Dec 2024Pro-Israel commentator Mor Edge"Our ambition was never a Greater Israel. But perhaps now, for the sake of security and stability in the region, it should be... We should take back the Golan and Sinai and every inch of land we ever gave for peace" (post)
Jan 2025Former ambassador to Egypt David Govrin"questions remain about Egypt's genuine recognition of Israel within its 1948 borders" (The Cradle)
Jun 2026Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, described in the posts as a teacher of Ben Gvir"We are returning to Sinai (Egypt)... we have Ben Gvir, who will make it happen" (video)
Jun 2026Activist Amiad Cohen, at a Jewish News Syndicate summit"Fifteen years from now, Israel will have a war with Egypt" (video)
Jun 2026Jonathan Pollard, former Israeli spyNames Turkey and Egypt as the next battlegrounds (Sahat English)

"A decades-long master plan, right?"​

Defenders of Israel ask why a country bent on expansion would give the Sinai back. The answer from the record: it was traded, with the United States brokering and paying for the deal, for peace with the largest Arab army; the planners of the time called the trade a mistake; and the voices on this page have never stopped treating the land as theirs. A pro-Israel user replying to that exact question on X said it plainly: "we returned sinai because we were much weaker then" (reply to BRICS News on X, April 2026).

Evidence rating: CONFIRMED that Israeli ministers, rabbis, and planners have called for retaking the Sinai. STRONG that the Sinai remains part of the Greater Israel claim.

Status: Uzi Sharbaf, Amichai Eliyahu, David Govrin, Yisrael Ariel, Itamar Ben Gvir, Amiad Cohen, Jonathan Pollard, and Zachary Foster are alive. Theodor Herzl (1904) is deceased. Nothing on this page states that any living person committed a crime.

Sources​

Research captures: twitter/t26__v301.md, twitter/t26__v303.md, twitter/t26__v305.md, twitter/t26__v306.md, twitter/t26__v307.md, twitter/t26__v308.md, twitter/t26__v310.md, twitter/t26__v312.md, twitter/t28__v325.md

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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