Greater Israel
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Greater Israel (also Complete Land of Israel, Hebrew: ארץ ישראל השלמה, Eretz Yisrael Hashlemah[1][2]) is a term that denotes Biblical boundaries of the Land of Israel.
Though the borders of Greater Israel are not clearly defined, many devout Jews (and Christians alike) draw such definition from Biblical sources, namely the book of Genesis, which describes God's covenant with Abraham:
- On that day, God made a covenant with Abram, saying: "To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt as far as the great river the Euphrates. The land of the Kenites, Kenizites, Kadmonites; the Chitties, Perizites, Refaim; the Emorites, Canaanites, Gigashites and Yevusites." - Genesis 15:18-21
In the above context, Greater Israel would comprise, roughly, all of modern-day Israel as well as the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, Jordan, and Lebanon, much of Syria, Iraq, and Kuwait, as well as parts of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Turkey.
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[edit] Present-day usages
In present-day discourse, the exact definition of Greater Israel is open to interpretation. According to Daniel Pipes there are three main usages of the term[2]:
- According to some right-wing Israeli views, the term refers to a state of Israel (Hebrew: Medinat Yisra'el) established on the whole geographical region of Palestine (known in Hebrew as Eretz Yisra'el, distinct from the political entity Medinat Yisra'el), situated between the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River, annexing both the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
- According to some far-right Jewish Mandate (pre-modern State of Israel) groups, such as Betar and Irgun Zvai-Leumi that ceased to exist as political movements, it refers to the pre-1923 mandatory Palestine, i.e. both the historical region of Palestine and what was later Transjordan.
- According to some Arab nationalists, Greater Israel refers to an extremist Zionist conspiracy to stretch the borders of the state of Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates according to the kingdom of David in the above mentioned verse from the Bible.
The term is not used in this sense in mainstream Israeli discourse, and nowadays no prominent Zionist or Israeli intellectual or political figure openly advocates pursuing such borders.
However, the term of "Greater Israel" in Israeli politics today refers at least to parts of the West Bank, the Golan Heights and the Gaza Strip.
The idea that "Greater Israel" includes parts of Egypt is based on the term "River of Egypt" (נהר מצרים nehar mitsrayim) used to determine the south-west border of "The Promised Land". Some interpretations see this term as a flowery reference to The Nile (otherwise called in the Hebrew Bible Yeor יאור). However others suggest that this is merely a synonym of the term "Brook of Egypt" (נחל מצרים nachal mitsrayim) as appears in the book of Joshua and according to which lies near the city of Gaza ("...Gaza with her towns and her villages unto the river of Egypt" Joshua 15:47, KJV translates "river" rather than "brook"). Therefore it is likely but not proven that the term refers to the river known today as Wadi El-Arish in north-east Sinai.
[edit] See also
- Irredentism
- Kahanism
- Assyrian independence
- Greater Syria
- Greater Lebanon
- Greater Serbia
- Großdeutschland
- 10 Agorot controversy
- Levant
- Phoenicianism
[edit] References
- ^ Jerusalem Dispatch: Stripped, Yossi Klein Halevi, The New Republic, August 26 2005
- ^ a b "Imperial Israel: The Nile-to-Euphrates Calumny", by Daniel Pipes (accessed 12 October, 2005)
[edit] External links
- For The Land and The Lord: The Range of Disagreement within Jewish Fundamentalism, by Ian Lustick, chapter V and chapter VII (accessed 12 October, 2005)
