By: Amit Segal

In psychology this is called “projection”: when Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, accuses Israel of trying to establish a “Greater and Ancient Israel” on the territory of its neighbors and of Turkey, he is expressing his own collective desire and that of his supporters—to reestablish the Ottoman Empire that once ruled those very regions. When he claims, without any basis, that Israel seeks to destroy Turkey, he ignores his own calls to bring about Israel’s destruction. While he accuses Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians, he denies the genocide his own country carried out against the Armenians. Even when he accuses Israel of attempting to turn the Muslim Al-Aqsa Mosque into a Jewish temple, he ignores the fact that the only person who actually converted an ancient structure of one religion into that of another is he himself: in 2020, he declared the Hagia Sophia—built as a church—to be a mosque, disregarding protests from the international community.

Turkey was once the “sick man of Europe.” Now, together with Qatar, it is the dangerous Muslim Brotherhood of the Middle East. It stands alongside every problematic actor in the region, supports terrorism, and fuels instability. It assists Pakistan against India, builds bases in Sri Lanka, and above all hosts Hamas operatives and grants them protection. When Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, one of the planners of the October 7 massacre, was eliminated by Israel in Tehran in July 2024, the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv lowered its flag to half-staff. Imagine what would have happened if a foreign embassy in Washington had lowered its flag to half-staff after the elimination of bin Laden.

This is one of the reasons why not only Israel opposes the integration of Turkish soldiers into the multinational force in the Gaza Strip. Behind closed doors, the Saudis and the Emiratis also strongly oppose it. If Turkey seeks to preserve and nurture Hamas in Istanbul, there is no reason it would not act to preserve and nurture it in Gaza as well. This stands in stark contrast to the approach of President Trump, who believes the terrorist organization must be disarmed.

In short, nothing good will come from expanding the Turkish military presence in the region. Therefore, growing concern should be directed at Turkey’s request to President Trump to sell it advanced F-35 fighter jets. A senior Israeli official told me this week that the chances the sale will be approved stand at 40 percent—much higher than he believed just a few weeks ago.

For what purpose does Turkey—already a global military power—need such an advanced aircraft? Israel objected to the sale of identical planes to Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, but it is clear to everyone that in the foreseeable future these aircraft are meant to defend against Iranian aggression, not to train for an attack on Tel Aviv. Erdoğan, by contrast, is careful to preserve Tehran’s honor and preaches the destruction of the “bloodthirsty gang” in Jerusalem.

These aircraft are intended for a future war against Israel. The Jewish state was added only this year to Turkey’s “Red Book” as an existential threat to the country, under the false pretext that Israel seeks to conquer Anatolia, part of the Kingdom of David. Thirty-seven percent of Turks see…