Netanyahu Warns Trump Turkey’s Erdogan Rhetoric Threatens Israel Security Zones

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised concerns with U.S. President Donald Trump over Turkey during a phone call Thursday, his office said, after Trump signaled he was considering selling advanced F-35 fighter jets to Ankara.

Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister warned Trump about the “severity” of recent statements by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and senior Turkish officials, and also stressed “the need for security zones along Israel's borders.”

Akhbar Hayat

The call came after Trump publicly praised Erdogan during the NATO summit in Ankara, where the two leaders appeared together and Trump suggested Turkey could eventually receive the fifth-generation stealth fighter jets.

Trump told reporters alongside Erdogan, “Turkey's been in many ways much more loyal than other countries that we think would be loyal,” and said, “It's a decision we're going to make.”

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told CNN Türk that “Israel has become a problem for the entire international community,” and said, “It has become the world's problem. The Israeli authorities have become a burden that humanity can no longer bear.”

In an interview with Kan News, Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli warned that a scenario in which Turkey takes military action against Israel is entirely possible, saying he had never seen anything comparable to what has emerged in recent months.

Al-Bawaba News

Chikli said Israel views one outcome from the NATO summit in Ankara as a diplomatic achievement because no announcement was made confirming that Trump would supply Turkey with F-35 fighter jets.

Fox News Digital reported that Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar called Fidan’s words “a clear call for genocide,” adding, “The first step on the road to genocide is dehumanization.”

Netanyahu’s office said Israeli officials have been lobbying Washington to block any sale of F-35 aircraft to Turkey or, failing that, to provide Ankara with a downgraded version to preserve Israel's longstanding qualitative military edge in the region.

Netanyahu also said, “The war has not ended. There are new challenges,” while adding, “Maintaining air superiority is a fundamental pillar of Israel's national security doctrine.”

Fox News Digital quoted Sinan Ciddi, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and director of FDD’s Turkey program, saying Fidan’s statement was “some of the vilest rhetoric to come out of any statesman since the Holocaust.”

Ciddi said Turkey “is going to try and overshadow anything else” at the two-day NATO summit in Ankara, and argued, “We cannot safeguard our allies’ democratic norms, rights and practices if we don’t hold member states like Turkey accountable for the threats that it presents.”