← Greater Israel

The Neighbors, Country by Country

If you only know that Iran is being bombed, start with a map. Put your finger on Israel. Around it sit Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan to the east, and Egypt to the southwest. Past Jordan lies Iraq, and past Iraq, on the far side of the Euphrates River, lies Iran. "Greater Israel" (in Hebrew Eretz Yisrael HaShlema, "the Whole Land of Israel") is the idea that Israel's rightful borders are much larger than the ones the world recognizes. In its widest biblical form, taken from Genesis 15:18, it runs "from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates." Every one of these neighbors sits partly or wholly inside that line, except Iran, which sits just outside it.

This part of the investigation goes around that map one country at a time. For each neighbor it lays out four kinds of evidence: what Israeli officials and public figures have said about that country's land, the maps that have been shown, what the Israeli army has actually done on the ground, and how the neighbor's own government has reacted. The last kind matters more than it might seem. Governments that have signed peace treaties with Israel, like Jordan and Egypt, do not issue formal protests, reinstate the military draft, or move tens of thousands of troops to a border over nothing. Their alarm is itself evidence of what they see coming.

The pattern that emerges is this investigation's finding. Israel's government and its allies speak about the neighbors in the language of the promised land. Since the fall of Syria's Assad government in December 2024 and the first war on Iran in June 2025, that language has turned into facts on the ground: a strip of southern Syria including Mount Hermon, and southern Lebanon up to the Litani River, both held by the Israeli army and both claimed "forever" or "until further notice" by Israeli ministers. Iran is the country that has stood behind the forces resisting that expansion, which is why this investigation treats Iran as the obstacle that the current war is meant to clear.

The six country pages

The inner ring: land already taken

Lebanon. In March 2026, during the war that began when Iran was attacked, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Israeli radio, "I say here definitively…in every room and in every discussion, too: the new Israeli border must be the Litani." The next day Defense Minister Israel Katz announced the army would hold a "security zone" up to that river and that hundreds of thousands of Lebanese would not be allowed to go home (Times of Israel, 23 March 2026; Jerusalem Post, 24 March 2026). The Jerusalem Post called it "Israel's intent to seize territory amounting to nearly a tenth of Lebanon."

The treaty neighbors: Jordan and Egypt

Jordan. In March 2023 Smotrich gave a speech in Paris from a podium draped with a map that showed Jordan inside Israel. Jordan's Foreign Ministry called it "reckless incitement that is in violation of international norms and the Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty" (Anadolu via usmuslims.com, 20 March 2023). In August 2025, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he feels "very" connected to the Greater Israel vision, Jordan brought back compulsory military service for the first time in more than three decades. In September 2026 King Abdullah told the United Nations: "No one in this assembly should think that ambitions will stop at Palestine."

The far edge: Iraq and Iran

Iraq. Iraq is on the map because the Euphrates runs through it. Israel's opposition leader, Yair Lapid, said in February 2026 that "the borders of the Land of Israel are the borders of the Bible" and that he supports a land "as broad as possible." A 1982 strategy essay by a former Israeli Foreign Ministry official called breaking Iraq apart "even more important for us than that of Syria." And during the Iran war, according to the Wall Street Journal, Israel built a secret base inside Iraq and struck Iraqi troops who came near it.

How strong is the evidence?

Claim	Rating	Page
Senior Israeli ministers have publicly called for moving Israel's border to the Litani River in Lebanon	CONFIRMED	Lebanon
Israel holds southern Lebanon to the Litani and bars residents from returning	CONFIRMED	Lebanon
Israel holds Syria's Mount Hermon and the buffer zone and its defense minister says it will not leave	CONFIRMED	Syria
Israeli ministers and settler leaders speak of expanding "until Damascus" and settling southern Syria	CONFIRMED	Syria
An Israeli minister spoke in front of a map placing Jordan inside Israel, and Jordan formally protested	CONFIRMED	Jordan
Jordan, Egypt, and Iraq treat Israeli Greater Israel statements as a threat to their sovereignty	CONFIRMED	Jordan, Egypt, Iraq
Israeli officials have planned or pushed for moving Gaza's population into Egypt's Sinai	STRONG	Egypt and the Sinai
Israeli strategy has long aimed at breaking Iraq and Syria into smaller pieces	STRONG	Iraq
Iran is the obstacle, and the land taken in Lebanon and Syria followed the weakening of Iran's network	STRONG	Iran

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

The six country pages​

The inner ring: land already taken​

The treaty neighbors: Jordan and Egypt​

The far edge: Iraq and Iran​

How strong is the evidence?​

Related Areas​

The six country pages

The inner ring: land already taken

The treaty neighbors: Jordan and Egypt

The far edge: Iraq and Iran

How strong is the evidence?

Related Areas