Present day occupation of Palestinian, Egyptian and Syrian territory by Israel can be better understood with the background of Zionist territorial aims explicit in the declarations of the movement's leaders right from its inception. Theodor Herzl, the father of Zionism, in his book "Der Judenstat" (The Jewish State) drew the frontiers of the proposed state: "The northern frontier is to be the mountains facing Cappadocia (in Turkey); the southern, the Suez Canal."

In 1919 the Zionist delegation to the Paris Peace Conference submitted a plan for the Zionist state which included Palestine in its entirety, Jordan, the Syrian Golan Heights, Southern Lebanon and parts of Sinai.

On 3rd May 1948, General Patrick Hurley, personal representative of President Roosevelt in the Middle East, reported to the President:

"The Zionist organisation in Palestine has indicated its commitment to an enlarged program for:

1. A Sovereign Jewish State which would embrace Palestine and probably eventually Trans-Jordan.

2. An eventual transfer of the Arab population from Palestine to Iraq.

3. Jewish leadership for the whole Middle East in the fields of economic development and control.

On 14th May 1948 when Ben Gurion announced the creation of the State of Israel, he refused to declare its boundaries and said later in 1952 that the state 'has been resurrected in the western part of the land of Israel,' and continued 'It must now be said that it has been established in only a portion of the land of Israel.'

Moshe Dayan as Chief of Staff of the Israeli army said on the Israeli radio on 12th February 1952, "It lies upon the Israeli army to carry out the fight with the ultimate object of erecting the Israeli empire."