According to American historian
Robin D. G. Kelley, the phrase "began as a
Zionist slogan signifying the boundaries of
Eretz Israel."
[18] Israeli-American historian
Omer Bartov notes that Zionist usage of such language predates the
establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 and began with the
Revisionist movement of Zionism led by
Vladimir Jabotinski, which spoke of establishing a Jewish state in all of Palestine and had a
song which includes: "The Jordan has two banks; this one is ours, and the other one too," suggesting a Jewish state extending even beyond the Jordan River. In 1977, the concept appeared in an election manifesto of the Israeli political party
Likud, which stated that “between the sea and the Jordan there will be only Israeli sovereignty.” The current ideology of the Israeli government in 2024 is rooted in
Revisionist Zionism, which sought the entire territory of Mandatory Palestine.