Does Turkey pose a threat to Israel? Is war inevitable between Israel and the Turkish army after the war with Tel Aviv?
By Khaled Al-Jayousi, “Rai Al-Youm” – Amman, Jordan
Once again, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is under fierce Israeli attack and Türkiye is being placed on the map of malicious Israeli intentions, whose turn will come after Iran’s.
The Turkish president’s position was explicit in its support for Iran. He even predicted the Iranian people’s victory in the recent war between Israel and Iran, while warning his ally in the nationalist movement, Devlet Bahceli, that Turkey would be next.
Amichai Chikli, Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Jewry and the Fight Against Anti-Semitism, launched a sharp attack on President Erdogan and sharply criticized Türkiye’s role in the region.
Türkiye is the next Iran, and Erdogan is one of Israel’s “biggest problems,” Chikli said bluntly in an interview with Israel’s Channel 14.
This is a remarkable statement that predicts that Türkiye will be the next Iran from the Israeli perspective, meaning that it will carry the banner of hostility toward the entity, but on one condition that the Turkish president has previously spoken about: complete deterrence
The Israeli minister accused Erdogan of dreaming of becoming a caliph to spread a toxic jihadist Brotherhood which is extremely dangerous.
The Turkish president’s opponents point out that the latter is a friend of President Donald Trump, which could keep Turkey in the US alliance, even though it is already a member of NATO. So why is Israel afraid of the Turkish army? Is this related to Erdogan’s Islamist leanings and anti-Zionist rhetoric?
Israeli Minister Chikli believes that Erdogan “has broad influence in the Islamic world,” adding that “the Iranian army is nothing compared to the Turkish army.”
The Turkish president apparently does not want to rely on American or Russian weapons, as Erdogan has declared that the Russian S-400 air defense system alone is not sufficient to meet all of his county’s air defense needs.
The 12-day war appears to have been a lesson learned for the Turkish president, as Erdoğan explained, according to Anadolu Agency: “The air defense system is not limited to the S-400. Our public has clearly realized this in recent days [due to the conflict in the region]. We need to establish a multi-layered air defense system. It is very important to have missiles that operate at different altitudes in a coordinated manner.”
Erdogan pointed out that Turkey has made significant progress in its missile capabilities, but that it remains insufficient, saying, “We are building an integrated system called the ‘Iron Dome.’ We are integrating multi-altitude air defense systems, sensors, and electronic warfare systems that we have developed internally.”
The issue of the “delivery” of the F-35 fighter jets to Turkey remains a matter of question, and the reasons for Washington’s delay in delivering them remain unclear. Whether the matter is related solely to Ankara’s purchase of the Russian S-400, which resulted in its 2019 deprivation of the American aircraft, is unclear. In this context, Erdogan said: “We discussed the issue of the F-35 fighter jets. We paid between $1.3 and $1.4 billion for these aircraft, and we noticed that Trump has good intentions regarding the delivery.”
According to the NATO Secretary General’s annual report, Turkey’s defense spending increased from 1.45% in 2014 to 2.09% in 2024. Ankara allocated approximately 31.8% of its defense budget this year to major equipment purchases and research and development, clearly exceeding the alliance’s minimum target of 20%.
The question is: Could Turkey engage in a direct war with Israel, if it is the next target after Iran, as a number of its officials warn? And what is the likelihood of its ability to win given the inevitable American support for Israel?
The Yeni Şafak newspaper stated that Türkiye is capable of winning any potential military confrontation with Israel, even with US support, but it linked this victory to several factors that must come together.
In his article, Turkish writer Ismail Kılıç Arslan questioned whether “Turkey is prepared for a potential, even inevitable, war with Israel.” Arslan argued that Turkey is largely prepared and is becoming more prepared by the day, but the real challenge, he said, is the clarity of the Islamic world’s positions and the extent to which the internal front is fortified.
The writer wondered why the Islamic world lacked support for Tehran, despite the fact that it “launched missiles at Israel and, as he described it, caused moments of terror to the Zionist dogs.”
Is Turkey better off than Iran, enjoying the support of the Islamic world, with the slight difference that it has never previously fired a weapon at the occupying state of Israel? The Arab and Islamic world has long feared its “Ottoman expansionist project” that seeks to be reborn, given their previous historical experiences that explain their feats of the “new Ottomans.”
