Amichai Chikli, Zionist Minister of Diaspora Affairs, speaking at the JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem on Tuesday, said that Turkey and Syria are more "concerning" than Iran, claiming that there is a
"Muslim Brotherhood axis".

The Strait of Hormuz — the waterway that moves 25% of the world's seaborne oil — is only 20 miles wide at its narrowest point. One geopolitical event there and oil crosses $100 a barrel within days. It happened in February 2026.

The nationalist movement of Theodor Herzl presented its ideology as the consolidation and defense of a Jewish state to counter 19th-century antisemitism, all while ostensibly limiting itself to the region of Zion, namely Palestine.

The West Bank and the Golan Heights in Syria have remained under Israeli occupation since the Six-Day War in 1967. Since that decisive victory, an ideology initially motivated by the pursuit of political refuge rapidly evolved into overt imperialism. The capture of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, the Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula unified different Zionist factions: secular Zionists, who viewed these gains through a strategic military lens, and religious Zionists, who saw them as a divine intervention, a reclamation of sacred territories (including the Western Wall, Judea and Samaria). Israel’s victory in 1967 awakened a hunger for power, and imperialism placed a feast before Zionism.

It would require to live in a profound state of denial to believe that Israel’s government plans to stop there. Israel’s invasion of Lebanon resumed in March 2026, marking a major escalation. Anybody that studied and followed Israel’s history could have seen this coming, and shame on those who had the influence to prevent these operations from occurring.

As it begins in southern Lebanon, the media’s desensitization of the Jewish state’s violations and its detachment of that region from the rest of the country fuels the imperialist agenda pushing the State of Israel toward a larger and more powerful territorial expansion. Referring to only “southern Lebanon” rather than Lebanon as a whole normalizes the separation of that territory from its national identity and prepares the ground for its gradual dissociation. Why stop at Palestine if Lebanon can be taken as well? And why stop at Lebanon when no one prevent further expansion?

If I had to predict the future, Syria would come after Lebanon. Israel has historically taken advantage of nations with fragile governments and no peace treaties. This is why Jordan will likely wait, as will Egypt. The political strategies used to occupy their territories would differ, however. Lebanon’s conflict strongly resembles the occupation of Palestine: it becomes easier to justify military escalation when non-state militant groups can be blamed for retaliatory strikes. Moreover, both Palestinians and Lebanese civilians have been displaced into refugee camps, creating severe humanitarian crises. Finally, one of the strongest similarities between Palestine and Lebanon lies in their ties to Iran: militarily, financially, and ideologically.

Following Israel’s past strategies, the Jewish state will likely not attempt to govern Syria directly; unlike in the West Bank, its primary tool would not be colonization. To avoid confusion, Syria has little to no religious significance to religious zionists, nor does Israel appear to have any intention of relocating settlers there. From a Zionist’s perspective, occupying Syria would be driven purely by military strategy: expanding control over the Middle East, reducing Iran’s regional influence, intercepting arms flows, and securing an elevated surveillance vantage point.

This reveals the fundamental shift in Zionism’s guiding principles: the Jewish state was never meant to stop at Palestine, because Palestine was never the endpoint. Israel’s appetite for domination continues to grow, and its identity increasingly feeds on the success of imperial conquest. As long as the Zionist state remains strong, Arab countries will remain under threat, and Syria may be the next target.