The fantasy of Greater Israel is becoming a regional nightmare

In late 2024, a small group of radical Israeli settlers briefly crossed into Lebanon and established an outpost. The group was led by the Uri Tzafon Movement, a religious Zionist organisation that has staged events demanding the Jewish settlement of southern Lebanon.

This vision is shared by the Nachala settler movement. A video on its website presents a pioneering spirit of Jews building, developing and settling the West Bank. Backed by Daniella Weiss, the godmother of the Zionist colonisation project, Nachala also advocates Jewish settlement in Gaza, Lebanon and beyond.

"Jewish settlement is the only thing that will bring about regional stability and security for the State of Israel, along with a stable economy, national resilience, and deterrence," a Facebook post in December 2024 declared.

"In Gaza, in Lebanon, in the entire Golan Heights, including the 'Syrian Plateau', and in the entire Mount Hermon," it continued.

The post included a biblical map titled "Abraham's Borders", featuring Israel, all of Lebanon and most of Syria and Iraq. On its website, Nachala explains that its aim is "encouraging and helping the government to carry out an official plan of [Israeli] Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, which laid the foundations for 2 million Jews to settle in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank]".