‘Greater Israel’: How Christian Zionism infiltrated US policy

A sermon becomes a map, a map becomes policy, and policy becomes land taken, homes emptied and borders redrawn. The Al Jazeera Originals documentary 'Greater Israel' traces how a centuries-old biblical idea travelled from English fringe pulpits to the heart of US politics, and from prophecy into the machinery of modern power.

Directed by Awad Joumaa, the film explores a question that no longer belongs only to theologians or historians: what happens when a religious vision of territory is backed by votes, money, military infrastructure and state policy?

From pulpits to the halls of power

In a megachurch in San Antonio, Texas, Pastor John Hagee reads the map aloud. God, he says, promised the Jewish people "one-half of modern-day Egypt, all of Israel, all of Lebanon, all of Syria, all of Jordan, all of Kuwait, and three-fourths of Saudi Arabia".

Hagee is not a fringe preacher. He is the founder of Christians United for Israel, or CUFI, which claims more than 10 million members and has become one of the most powerful pro-Israel organisations in the United States.

The theology is preached from pulpits. The machinery runs through donations, lobbying and tax-exempt advocacy. The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews says it has raised more than $3.6bn since 1983, with 92 percent of its donors identifying as Christian.

CUFI’s political arm is smaller in dollar terms but influential in access. OpenSecrets records $679,410 in federal lobbying spending by CUFI Action Fund in 2025.

Inside Washington, the influence is structural. Ralph Drollinger’s Capitol Ministries – which advocates a "Biblical case for defending Israel" – runs weekly Bible studies attended by members of Congress. During the first Trump administration, it convened a cabinet-level Bible study.

From the Nile to the Euphrates

The Christian Zionist map of Israel itself comes from scripture. In Genesis 15, God promises Abraham’s descendants land "from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates". For Christian Zionists and some Israeli ultranationalists, that passage is not a metaphor. It is a title deed.

In February 2026, the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, sat with independent broadcaster Tucker Carlson as Carlson read out the biblical passage describing land "from the Euphrates to the Nile". Asked whether Israel had a right to all of it, Huckabee replied: "It would be fine if they took it all."

That imagination survives in the settler movement. Daniella Weiss, one of the most prominent leaders of the settlement enterprise, has insisted southern Lebanon is part of the vision of Greater Israel. In her words, "It is part of it. All of it, even parts of Syria, part of Iraq, part of Iran. It's huge."

Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has framed the claim in overtly religious language, praying publicly for "the expansion of the borders of the land of Israel for the complete redemption and for the building of the Temple".

Syria: The buffer zone becomes occupied ground

Syria shows how Israel has used the language of "security" to move further east. After the collapse of the Bashar al-Assad government in December 2024, Israel moved beyond the occupied Golan Heights into the demilitarised buffer zone that had separated Israeli and Syrian forces since a 1974 disengagement agreement.

Al Jazeera has reported that Israel captured about 400 square kilometres, or 155 square miles, of Syrian territory beyond the western Golan Heights it has occupied since 1967.

The move was presented by Israel as defensive and temporary. But the language of temporary security has a long history in the region. The occupied Golan Heights itself was seized in 1967 and later annexed by Israel in a move rejected internationally. Decades later, it remains under Israeli control.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appeared with Israeli troops in occupied territory in southern Syria, a visit that angered Damascus and raised questions over whether any future deal was possible.

South Lebanon: Occupation by another name

Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanon may well mark another move towards creating Greater Israel. Israel occupied parts of southern Lebanon from 1982 until its withdrawal in 2000.

But the border never became quiet, and after the latest war, Israel’s presence has again moved beyond episodic strikes. According to Al Jazeera reporting, Israeli forces have destroyed dozens of villages in southern Lebanon over the last 100 days, while attacks have continued despite ceasefire frameworks.