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The Deleted Jerusalem Post Article on Lebanon (2024)

In late September 2024 Israel was bombing Lebanon and preparing to send ground troops across the border. On 25 September 2024 the Jerusalem Post, one of Israel's main English-language newspapers, published an article in its Judaism section titled "Is Lebanon part of Israel's promised territory?" The answer it gave was yes, and that Jews were "commanded to conquer it." The paper then took the article down. Copies survive on the Internet Archive and in posts that spread across X within days.

Who wrote it and what it said​

The piece was written by Mark Fish and presented the teaching of Rabbi Shay Tahan, head of the Shaarei Ezra kollel (a study institute) in Brooklyn, New York. Key passages, as preserved:

  • "The recent conflict in Lebanon raises the age-old question regarding the northern borders of biblical Eretz Yisrael. Where exactly did Hashem define the boundaries, and are we obligated to conquer those areas?"
  • "The Torah provides clear guidelines regarding the areas we were commanded to conquer when taking possession of the land."
  • "In the last generation, the term 'Greater Israel' has come to the forefront."
  • The covenant with Abraham "stretches from the 'River of Egypt' (interpreted by some as the Nile or a smaller river in Sinai) to the Perat River. This expansive region includes parts of modern-day Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq."
  • Quoting Deuteronomy: "Every place where the sole of your foot will tread shall be yours—from the wilderness and the Lebanon, from the river—the Euphrates River—until the western sea." It concludes: "This promise from the Creator clearly places the land of Lebanon within the Promised Land of Israel, or what some refer to as 'the Complete Land of Israel', or 'The greater Israel'."
  • "The Ramban wrote that Lebanon is within the borders of Israel and adds that we were obligated and commanded to conquer it." (The Ramban is Nachmanides, a medieval rabbi whose rulings are still studied.)
  • On milchemet mitzvah, a commanded war: "If new land is identified as part of the biblical borders, there may be halachic discussions about the obligation to conquer and settle it."
  • It listed the religious-law effects of enlarged borders: farm laws such as the sabbatical year and tithes would apply in the new territories, and living there "may be considered a mitzvah."
  • It ends: "If one looks at a map, they will be astounded by how far north this river extends and how vast the Land of Israel truly is. While we may not be able to reclaim all of it in our time, Hashem will surely return it to us soon."

(Full text as pasted by Conscious Stranger on X, 29 September 2024.)

How it spread​

Decensored News posted the key quotations on 29 September 2024 under the heading "Quotes from the deleted Jerusalem Post article," viewed about 79,000 times (Decensored News on X). Daniel Haqiqatjou posted the passages the same day, writing that "the largest Israeli newspapers are running articles that Judaism commands its followers to establish a 'Greater Israel'" (Haqiqatjou on X, 29 September 2024), about 46,000 views.

Why it matters​

The timing is the point. The article appeared the week Israel's campaign in Lebanon escalated, in a mainstream Israeli paper, and it gave readers a religious duty to take the land being bombed. Within two years Israel's army held a "security zone" in southern Lebanon up to the Litani River, the finance minister said "the new Israeli border must be the Litani," and a settler movement, Uri Tzafon, was organizing to settle it (see Settlers Look North and Lebanon and Syria Since 2024). The Jerusalem Post removed the words. It did not remove the policy.

Evidence rating: CONFIRMED that the article ran and was removed (archived copy).

Status: Rabbi Shay Tahan, Mark Fish, and Daniel Haqiqatjou are alive. Nachmanides (the Ramban) is deceased (c. 1270). Nothing on this page states that any living person committed a crime.

Sources​

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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