The quest for ‘Greater Israel’ continues, from ancient Canaanite battles to modern Israeli-Palestinian conflicts, rooted in biblical and historical claims.
By Chudi Okoye
In a willful suspension of belief, most in the West like to wring their hands and pretend that no one can decipher Benjamin Netanyahu’s endgame. But you only have to read Ze’ev Jabotinsky to grasp what might be playing out presently in Palestine. The views of the influential 20th-century Zionist militant and author are clearly evident in the ongoing actions of the Israeli government, especially in the disposition of Prime Minister Netanyahu, who professes himself an adherent of the former Zionist leader.
I argued in the first part of my essay on the ongoing Israeli-Hamas war that, in its shock-and-awe response to the Hamas outrage of October 2023, the Israeli government may be focusing on a broader strategic objective than merely rescuing the remaining hostages held by Hamas. A throwback to Jabotinsky lends weight to this argument.
Ze’ev Jabotinsky (1880 to 1940) was a Zionist soldier and activist who founded several Jewish militant and paramilitary organizations during the period of Mandatory Palestine (1917 to 1948), amid growing conflicts between Jews and Palestinian Arabs which arose from increased Jewish immigration into Palestine after World War I. An author and influential orator, Jabotinsky articulated in clear and forceful terms what the Jews must accomplish in the land of Palestine; and he stated in stark and certain terms how they must set about the task.
He had developed the concept of ‘Revisionist Zionism’ which advocated the establishment of the state of Israel through territorial maximalism in Palestine, and he proposed a muscular military strategy to achieve the goal. In a powerful 1923 article titled “The Iron Wall” which is today both revered and reviled (depending on one’s perspective), Jabotinsky advocated for Jewish “colonization of Palestine,” arguing that this could only be achieved by using superior military force to overcome Arab resistance and by setting up a formidable wall of defense that could never be breached by conquered Arabs.
Interestingly, Jabotinsky, known for his realist approach to Zionism, never claimed that Jews were indigenous to Palestine or that the land originally belonged to them, as often asserted in pro-Israel rhetoric. He frequently referred to Palestinian Arabs as the “natives” and his own Jewish people as the “colonists”; but he was clear that the Arabs would never willingly accept Jewish settlement in Palestine. As he put it:
“Every native population in the world resists colonists as long as it has the slightest hope of being able to rid itself of the danger of being colonized. That is what the Arabs in Palestine are doing, and what they will persist in doing as long as there remains a solitary spark of hope that they will be able to prevent the transformation of ‘Palestine’ into the ‘Land of Israel’.”
For this reason, he strongly disagreed with moderate Zionists of his time who preferred a peaceful approach with native Palestinians. He proposed a more forceful approach:
“Zionist colonization must either stop, or else proceed regardless of the native population. Which means that it can proceed and develop only under the protection of a power that is independent of the native population – behind an iron wall, which the native population cannot breach. [We must] create in the country such conditions of administration and security that if the native population should desire to hinder our work, they will find it impossible.”
Jabotinsky’s viewpoint clearly won the day, adopted and implemented with varying intensity by successive Israeli governments ever since. As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – who counts himself among “the students of Jabotinsky” – stated in July 2023, in remarks at a state memorial ceremony for Ze’ev Jabotinsky on Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem,
“One hundred years after the ‘iron wall’ was stamped in Jabotinsky’s writings, we are continuing to successfully implement these principles. I say ‘continuing’ because the need to stand as a powerful iron wall against our enemies has been adopted by every Government of Israel, from the right and the left.”
A cornerstone of the Jabotinsky principle is the push for territorial maximalism, long embedded in the idea of ‘Greater Israel’ (Eretz Yisrael Hashlema in Hebrew). It is a form of Jewish irredentism, a drive to expand the territorial boundaries of Israel to limits considered consistent with biblical geography. This presumptive uber Jewish territory – given different names over time, including ‘Land of Israel’, ‘Land of Canaan’, ‘Promised Land’, ‘Holy Land’, and Palestine – has historically had varied definitions. Earlier encompassing the former Emirate of Transjordan (modern-day Jordan plus the West Bank) and the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, the term is currently presumed by Israeli irredentists to include the State of Israel plus the two Palestinian territories – Gaza and the West Bank, and, by some religious or nationalist interpretations (though, more formally on strategic and security grounds), even the Golan Heights in Syria. It is the 10,846 sq miles (28,092 sq km) territory in the Southern Levant part of West Asia bordered by Jordan to the east, Syria to the north-east, Lebanon to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Egypt to the south-west, and the Red Sea to its southern tip.
Israel’s claim over this territory is based on a complex mix of factors, including biblical promises, spiritual connection, historical presence, cultural and national identity, land purchase, international recognition and security. However, although Israel claims historical ties to the land, it cannot claim Jewish indigeneity to, or historical ownership of, the land, as we see from the brief historical survey below.
Historical Background
The geographical area now comprising the state of Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories came to be called ‘Palaestina’ under Roman rule, around 135 CE, the name derived from ‘Philistia’, a Greek term earlier used in reference to the coastal Philistine territories. The region was settled in successive waves throughout history, with evidence of human settlements dating back to the Paleolithic period, including the Natufian culture (12,000–9500 BCE) and evolving communities through the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods (10,000–3500 BCE). By this time, permanent settlements were emerging in places like Jericho (in today’s West Bank), one of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited sites.
Semitic-speaking Canaanite tribes, some probably descended from biblical Canaan (Gen. 9:18, 22), became prominent in the Early Bronze Age (circa 3000 BCE), further developing the city of Jericho and creating new city-states across the region, including Hazor and Megiddo. The Jebusites, a Canaanite tribe, inhabited Jerusalem, then known as Jebus, before it was conquered by King David in the 10th century BCE, according to biblical accounts. As the Bible indicates (Gen. 12:6), the Canaanites were established in the region well before the arrival of the Hebrew patriarch, Abraham, traditionally dated to around 1800–1700 BCE. Contemporary genetic studies have found strong DNA links between ancient Canaanites and modern Levantine populations, including Palestinians, Syrians, Lebanese, and Jordanians, indicating their longstanding continuity in the region.
The Palestine region also saw other significant migrations between the Middle Bronze Age and Late Iron Age. These included various Semitic-speaking peoples who settled in different parts of the region. There were the Amorites in Canaan and Syria, the Arameans also in Syria, and the Hyksos who ruled parts of Egypt and had influence in Canaan. The Moabites and Edomites settled east and south of the Dead Sea respectively, in modern-day Jordan; as did the Ammonites who lived further up, east of the Jordan River. The Phoenicians, known for maritime trade, were based in modern-day Lebanon, with centers in Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos. The nomadic Midianites lived in the southern territory, including the Sinai Peninsula and Arabian Desert.
The Israelites arrived around 1200–1000 BCE, settling in the central highlands and establishing kingdoms between 1000 and 586 BCE. Initially unified under kings Saul, David, and Solomon, they later split into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. Throughout their history, the Israelites often clashed with the Philistines, a non-Semitic people from the Aegean region who arrived around 1200 BCE and established a coastal confederation known as the Philistine Pentapolis: Gaza, Gath, Ashkelon, Ekron, and Ashdod. Other non-Semitic groups, such as the Hittites and Hurrians, also had a presence in the region.
Such was the regional landscape: a complex tapestry of interacting, often competing, city-states and small kingdoms. This dynamic persisted until stronger imperial powers began to dominate the region later in the Iron Age and beyond, bringing advanced military technology and frequently resettling the inhabitants to consolidate control.
Imperial Conquests
Similar to the successive waves of tribal migrations described above, the Palestine region also experienced repeated waves of imperial rule, due in part to its strategic location at the intersection of Europe, Asia, and Africa. The Egyptian Empire exerted control over the region from 1500 to 1178 BCE, ruling parts of it as vassal states. In 722 BCE, the Assyrian Empire conquered the northern kingdom of Israel, initiating the period of Assyrian Captivity. The Babylonians followed, capturing the southern kingdom of Judah in 586 BCE under Nebuchadnezzar II, leading to the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem and the Babylonian Exile. The Persian (Achaemenid) Empire, led by Cyrus the Great, overtook Babylon in 539 BCE and allowed Jews to return and rebuild the Second Temple. This ushered in a relatively tolerant period under Persian rule until 332 BCE, when Alexander the Great conquered Palestine and incorporated it into his empire. After his death, the Ptolemies (Egypt) and Seleucids (Syria) ruled the area until the Maccabean Revolt of 167 to 160 BCE, which led to brief Jewish independence under the Hasmonean Dynasty. Roman rule followed, beginning in 63 BCE with Pompey’s conquest of Palestine. This period introduced client kings like Herod the Great and transformed Judea into a Roman province. After the Jewish Revolt in 70 CE, the Romans destroyed the Second Temple, and following the Bar Kokhba Revolt in 135 CE, renamed the region Syria Palaestina.
After the Roman Empire’s split, Palestine became part of the Byzantine Empire from 330 to 636 CE, during which Christianity spread widely, especially after Constantine the Great’s conversion. Jerusalem became an important Christian city. In 636 CE, however, the Rashidun Caliphate conquered the region, followed by the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates, during which Jerusalem became a significant Islamic city. In 1099, during the First Crusade, European Crusaders established the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which lasted until the Muslim Mamluks expelled them in 1291. The Mamluks controlled Palestine until the Ottomans took over in 1517, ruling it as a quiet province until the 19th century, when Zionist immigration increased. Ottoman rule ended with World War I.
Following the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Britain administered Palestine under a League of Nations Mandate from 1917 to 1948. This period saw a surge in Jewish immigration due to European persecutions, leading to violent conflicts between Jews and Arabs. Britain’s 1917 Balfour Declaration supported a Jewish homeland in Palestine. In 1947, the UN proposed partitioning Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem and surrounding areas under international administration. The Arabs rejected the plan, seeing it as unfair since Jews made up only a third of the population but were allocated over 56% of the land. Palestinians also opposed the plan due to their ancestral ties to the land, viewing it as part of the Arab world, and fearing future displacement through Jewish expansion – a fear driven by the disposition of Zionist leaders like David Ben-Gurion (founding father and first prime minister of Israel) who only tactically accepted the plan as a step towards further expansion. Despite Arab opposition, the independent state of Israel was declared in 1948, gaining instant recognition from the US and UN.
The forceful establishment of Israel has led to ongoing Middle Eastern conflicts and repeated wars with neighboring Arab states, mirroring ancient Israelite battles for a biblical homeland in Canaan. Israel has prevailed in most of these conflicts, expanding its territory in the process. Today, it occupies approximately 80% of historical Palestine, far exceeding the 1947 UN partition plan. Even the 20% designated as Palestinian territories remains under Israeli occupation with extensive Israeli settlements (the West Bank and East Jerusalem), or is blockaded (Gaza).
This trajectory aligns with the concept of a ‘Greater Israel’, reflecting Israel’s biblical and historical claims and echoing the maximalist vision of early Zionist leaders like Ze’ev Jabotinsky. Though Jabotinsky died in 1940 before the state of Israel was created, his dream endures; as Prime Minister Netanyahu affirmed at the 2023 memorial for the late Zionist leader, this vision is nearly realized. Israel’s current military actions across multiple fronts reflect this historic path toward dominance and perceived national destiny.
