Jewish Currents reports:

Uri Tzafon’s vision of establishing Israeli settlements in Lebanon has advanced significantly over the last six weeks. What was considered a fringe curiosity in 2024 is transforming into the new Israeli conventional wisdom—backed by an organized movement with broad support from politicians and the media. Even as negotiations could force Israel to halt its bombardment of Lebanon, the next time Israel attacks, Uri Tzafon will be one step closer to building civilian settlements atop the ruins of Lebanese villages.

Uri Tzafon’s informal, oft-repeated motto is “occupation, expulsion, settlement.” It has advanced the idea that Israel must move its northern border to the Litani River—which bisects Lebanon about 15 miles north of the current Israeli boundary—and occupy a depopulated southern Lebanon, comprising some 10% of Lebanon’s total territory.

That idea is now a “broad and troubling consensus” in Israel, as the journalist Moshe Gilad wrote in Haaretz on April 9th. In early March, soon after Hezbollah launched attacks on Israel in response to the joint US and Israel war on Iran, Israeli public figures began calling for the occupation and depopulation of southern Lebanon—a claim repeated again and again by mainstream Israeli media personalities. Retired military leaders and politicians also voiced their support, and members of Knesset soon joined the call for occupation. On April 7th, 20 members of Knesset (MKs) wrote to the Israeli cabinet advocating for “occupation and full control” of southern Lebanon alongside “the complete displacement of the population.” One poll found that 62% of Israelis now support the idea of occupying all of Lebanon south of the Litani River. [Continue reading…]