The Illusion of the Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Iran Wars: Stop Greater Israel Immediately for World Peace

This week brought something West Asia has long yearned for: a glimmer of hope. On 14 June, the United States and Iran agreed on a framework to end the war between them. The Strait of Hormuz is scheduled to be reopened, the bombing of Lebanon halted, and, more important than the price of oil, the bloodshed is to stop. After more than a hundred days of war that claimed thousands of lives, including senior Iranian figures, and pushed the global economy to the brink, even a fragile ceasefire feels like the first light of dawn. We should welcome this ceasefire, but first we must understand it. To know why this war broke out, and why the series of wars before it erupted, we must name the common cause behind them all. That cause is ‘Greater Israel’—not a state, but an idea, and a terrifying one at that. The concept of Greater Israel has been the trigger for wars in Iraq, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and Iran. The idea of Greater Israel stems from the belief that Israel has a right to all of Palestine—from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea—as well as parts of neighbouring countries. According to the US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, a fundamentalist Protestant who uses biblical texts from around 700 BC as his geopolitical guide, Greater Israel stretches from the Nile River to the Euphrates. Last summer, Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his deep commitment to the vision of Greater Israel, which he said encompasses Palestinian territory and surrounding Arab areas.