Netanyahu Stresses: ‘We Have No Territorial Claims On Neighboring Countries’

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — In an interview a few weeks ago, Prime Minister Netanyahu intimated that he is very connected to the “vision of Greater Israel”. The term Greater Israel was used after the Six Day War of June 1967 to refer to Israel and the areas it had just conquered — East Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights.

The phrase was also used by some early Zionists, including Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the forerunner of Netanyahu’s Likud party, to refer to present-day Israel, Gaza, Judea and Samaria, and present-day Jordan, as well as parts of Lebanon. In the interview, the interviewer gives Netanyahu a map of the Biblical land of Israel which was promised to Abraham, including large parts of the Levant, and this prompted a significant furor in neighboring Arab countries, including Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon.

Recently, official figures in Jordan and Egypt have worked behind the scenes to obtain clarification from Prime Minister Netanyahu. According to the report, Egypt even urged the Prime Minister’s Office to issue a clear statement, due to the high sensitivity of the matter and the potential damage to relations between the countries, amid ongoing tensions surrounding Israeli policy in Gaza, Judea and Samaria.

A few days ago, the prime minister stressed on his official account that Israel has no territorial claims towards neighboring countries, and stressed that “our goal is peace and security”. The latter statement could explain how Israel is still maintaining a military presence in Syria despite not having territorial claims there, since it seeks to maintain Israel’s security in a country which still contains volatile anti-Israel elements.