Tehran TimesIran-leaningJun 21, 2026, 5:09 PM

‘Greater Israel doctrine has been the cause of wars in Iraq, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Iran’

In a statement from Tehran, two prominent scholars, Jeffrey Sachs, a renowned professor from Columbia University, and Sybil Fares, a senior government affairs advisor, have asserted that the doctrine of "Greater Israel" is the root cause of ongoing conflicts across the Middle East, including wars in Iraq, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and Iran. They characterize this doctrine as both absurd and dangerous, linking its support to secular hardliners such as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and extremist Jewish figures like Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir. According to these scholars, the doctrine is grounded in a Jewish supremacist belief that God exclusively granted the land encompassing Palestine and adjacent Arab territories to the Jewish people. Their analysis highlights how this ideological stance has exacerbated regional instability and fueled prolonged violence in multiple countries, emphasizing the doctrine's significant impact on Middle Eastern geopolitics.

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TEHRAN – Two senior scholars believe that the absurd and dangerous doctrine of “Greater Israel” has been the cause of wars in Iraq, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Iran. Jeffrey Sachs, a globally famous Columbia University professor, and Sybil Fares, a senior advisor on government affairs, say this doctrine is backed by secular hardliners like Benjamin Netanyahu and the Jewish supremacist creed of Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir that “God gave the land (Palestine and neighboring Arab lands) to the Jews alone.”