As Iran fades, Turkey emerges as Israel's biggest strategic threat
DIPLOMATIC AFFAIRS: Netanyahu’s campaign against selling F-35s to Ankara reflects a growing conviction in Jerusalem that Turkey is shaping up to be Israel’s principal long-term challenge.
History, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a recent Channel 14 interview, “teaches that when one regional power declines, another rises. Our task is to make sure Israel continues rising faster than anyone else.”
This explains why Netanyahu launched a public campaign in the US this week against President Donald Trump’s apparent willingness to sell the state-of-the-art F-35 fighter to Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Turkey, the state now furiously jockeying to replace Iran as the region’s dominant power.
Indeed, with the sun setting on Iran’s regional hegemony, despite diplomatic missteps that let Tehran off the ropes before a knockout blow, its military capabilities and web of regional proxies have been severely degraded, the sun is rising on Turkey’s ambitions.
Already entrenched in Syria, steadily expanding an indigenous defense industry capable of producing sophisticated drones, naval vessels, and eventually advanced fighter aircraft, and seeking a foothold in Gaza, Ankara increasingly appears intent on filling the regional vacuum Iran leaves behind.
Turkey is interested in surrounding Israel with a Sunni ring of fire
As former national security adviser Giora Eiland observed this week, Iran sought to surround Israel with a Shi’ite ring of fire. Turkey, he warned, increasingly appears interested in building a Sunni one.
That explains why Netanyahu went on American television networks to lobby publicly against an administration policy still under consideration. If Iran’s decline is creating a regional vacuum, Israel fears Turkey is positioning itself to fill it, and that American F-35s, coupled with Trump’s embrace of Erdogan, might help it do so.
Trump, however, sees matters much differently.
Standing beside Erdogan during the NATO summit, the president again spoke warmly of the Turkish leader. “I like Erdogan,” Trump said. “He’s an extraordinary leader.”
Netanyahu, on CNN, disputed that assessment. Erdogan’s Turkey, he said, “has aggressive aspirations,” “is not a force for peace and security,” and F-35 planes in its hands would “destroy the power balance” in the region.
A day later, Trump appeared to temper his remarks, saying no final decision had yet been made regarding the aircraft.
The fact that Trump appeared to soften his position only a day later suggests the proposal may already have encountered headwinds in Washington. Netanyahu’s intervention appears designed not to create those headwinds, but to make them considerably stronger. If the decision is still reversible, now is the moment to mobilize opposition.
The issue is sufficiently important for Netanyahu to do something he has generally avoided doing with Trump as president: publicly take issue with one of the president’s policies in an attempt to get it overturned. This is no trifling matter.
Trump has repeatedly emphasized his close relationship with Erdogan.
Indeed, he has gone even further, portraying himself as the man who prevented Turkey from entering the recent war against Iran on the opposite side.
“He could have gone into the war,” Trump said. “He didn’t because of me.”
Why the president would want to sell state-of-the-art weaponry to a leader who he himself said had contemplated joining a war against the United States and Israel is almost beside the point. The point is that Trump has made clear both where he stands and what he wants.
Netanyahu willing to take on 'the boss'
Netanyahu “knows who the boss is,” Trump said on Saturday. That might be the case, but Netanyahu showed this week that he is willing to take on “the boss” over an issue that he deems cardinal to Israel’s security: preserving qualitative military superiority over any potential regional rival.
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-902070