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← Nile to the Euphrates

The Wide Map's Proponents Today

This page collects people who, in the last few years, have spoken in their own words for Israel's borders reaching the Euphrates and the Nile, or for borders set by the biblical promise. They range from a cabinet minister and a prime minister's brother-in-law to rabbis, commentators, and American Christian preachers. Together they show the wide map is a living idea with a following, not a slogan invented by Israel's enemies.

In government and around it​

  • Bezalel Smotrich, finance minister. "God promised us the Land of Israel in its full biblical extent. I sincerely hope and pray that one day that vision will be fulfilled" (as captioned by Mario Nawfal, 2 August 2026). A Facebook reel summarizing an interview said his faith extends to "a 'great and broad Land of Israel,'" that he is "leaving part of the work, in his words, to God," while working now to entrench control of the West Bank and Gaza and "deep military zones inside Lebanon and Syria." See Smotrich and Other Ministers.
  • Hagi Ben Artzi, Netanyahu's brother-in-law, at the June 2024 conference of Uri Tzafon, the movement to settle southern Lebanon: Israel's borders "should be expanded to include Syria — according to what was promised in the Bible," and "We don't want even one meter beyond the Euphrates River. We are humble. [But] what we were promised, we must conquer" (+972 Magazine).
  • Yair Lapid, opposition leader, February 2026: "the borders are the Bible's borders" and "as broad as possible." See Lapid's biblical borders.

Settler leaders​

  • Daniella Weiss, Nachala movement: "We know from the Bible that the real borders of Greater Israel are the Euphrates and the Nile" (quoted by Wikipedia, 2024). See Daniella Weiss.
  • Rabbi Yoel Bin Nun, a leader of the early settler movement, is shown in a documentary clip saying, as the poster renders it, that the promised borders run between the Nile and the Euphrates and "whatever Israel can establish within them is the fulfillment" (The Compass Report on X, 10 September 2026).
  • A young settler in the same clip: "We'll occupy Transjordan and build settlements there. It's all temporary," and, asked about borders, "From the Euphrates River to the Tigris," and "the Nile too." See the movement founders.

Rabbis and writers​

  • Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, founder of the Temple Institute, in a June 2026 video as translated by several accounts: "We will soon see the Greater Israel; everything from the Nile to the Euphrates will be in our hands. We are returning to Sinai (Egypt) and the banks of the Jordan; we are reaching Syria... This entire territory belongs to us; we have Ben Gvir, who will make it happen" (Andrea Klein on X, 10 June 2026).
  • Adrian Stein, on the Times of Israel blog platform, January 2024: "Many of us understand Greater Israel to mean exactly what is described in the Bible, which is to say, from the 'Euphrates to the Nile,' or at the very least the reconstructed outlines and demarcations of the historical polities of King David, or King Solomon, or King Herod—all greatly exceeding the existing State of Israel in size and area" (Times of Israel blogs).
  • Rabbi Shay Tahan, in the Jerusalem Post, September 2024: Lebanon is inside the promised land and "we were obligated and commanded to conquer it." See the deleted article.
  • Effi Lipkin, an Israeli author, in an interview excerpt translated by a Lebanese account: Israel's borders extend "from the Euphrates to the Nile, and from Lebanon to the deserts of Mecca," a divine promise, with the region to be dismantled by "intercommunal, civil, and sectarian wars, chaos, and famine" (as paraphrased by Noha Hammoud on X, 21 September 2026).

Commentators and ordinary voices​

  • Avi Abelow, an Israeli commentator who runs Pulse of Israel, writing from a bomb shelter during Iranian missile fire in March 2026: "Our national borders and destiny, written by God in the Bible, unfolding before our eyes. ... Our ancestral homeland still calls to us, up to the Euphrates and down to the Nile. ... Do not be afraid to say proudly that 'of course one day the Jewish people will liberate our Biblical borders from the Euphrates to the Nile'" (Avi Abelow on X, 18 March 2026).
  • Avraham Shusteris, who describes himself as an Israeli ultra-Orthodox ultra-nationalist, September 2026: "Freedom for Greater Israel from the Euphrates to the Nile. Dont know why its so hard to say that" (X, 22 September 2026).
  • An Israeli officer filmed in Gaza in November 2023, as translated by the journalist David Sheen: "the land is ours. The whole country! All of it! Including Gaza! Including Lebanon! The whole promised land!" (David Sheen on X, 4 November 2023).
  • A Hebrew post in March 2026, viewed about 41,000 times: "Soon, with God's help, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates, in the days of the Messiah" (X, 12 March 2026, translation for this page).

American Christian Zionists​

The wide map has a large American following. "According to Genesis 15:18 and Joshua 1:4, the land God gave to Israel included everything from the Nile River in Egypt to Lebanon ... Israel currently possesses only a fraction of the land God has promised" (Benjamin Rapture Ready on X, 8 January 2025). U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee, a Christian Zionist, told Tucker Carlson it "would be fine" if Israel took it all. See Christian Zionism and the war.

How widespread​

A survey cited on Quora from the Palestine/Israel Pulse found "some 12% of Israeli Jews support the concept, with 24% of settlers calling it their most important value." Al Jazeera concluded in February 2026 that open calls for a vastly expanded Israel used to be "largely restricted to the fringes," but "those fringes — far-right figures like Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir — are now in government" (Al Jazeera, 26 February 2026).

Evidence rating: CONFIRMED that a sitting minister, the prime minister's brother-in-law, the opposition leader, settler leaders, rabbis, and the U.S. ambassador speak favorably of the biblical borders.

Status: Bezalel Smotrich, Hagi Ben Artzi, Yair Lapid, Daniella Weiss, Yoel Bin Nun, Yisrael Ariel, Adrian Stein, Shay Tahan, Effi Lipkin, Avi Abelow, Avraham Shusteris, David Sheen, and Mike Huckabee are alive. Nothing on this page states that any living person committed a crime.

Sources​

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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