Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey, is an Islamist and a megalomaniac. He lives in a presidential palace that he had built for himself; the Ak Saray, or White Palace, has 1,150 rooms. Erdogan has declared that a war between the countries of the Crescent and the Cross may be in the offing, leaving no doubt as to which side he would be on. Unsurprisingly, he hates Israel, and in the past has called for a pan-Islamic force to finally confront, and defeat, the Jewish state.
Did I mention that President Trump calls Erdogan “a close friend”?
More on Erdogan, and the threat he poses to Israel, can be found here: “A war between Israel and Turkey?,” by Joseph Puder, American Thinker, November 15, 2025:
The potential for a military clash between Turkey and Israel is growing. There are several colliding points, and each one of them has the potential to become a full-scale war, despite mechanisms designed to avoid conflict.
The most obvious is the Syrian front. Reports indicate that Turkey plans to help Syria’s transitional government develop a military force of approximately 200,000 personnel (approximately 10–15 divisions). Turkey has assumed the role of protector of Syria’s president, Ahmed al-Sharaa (al-Jolani, his nom de guerre). Israel, for its part, has assumed the role of protector of the Druze minority in southwestern Syria, an area that Israel seeks to demilitarize. The establishment of Turkish army and air force bases throughout Syria might be the next step. Should al-Sharaa, with Turkey’s support, seek to forcibly subjugate the Druze or perhaps even the Kurds, clashes between Israel and al-Sharaa’s Turkish overlords would be inevitable.
The IDF has already intervened to halt the attacks on the Druze in Sweida from both Bedouin and elements in the Syrian army, including those who were members of al-Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
Another point of contention between Turkey and Israel will likely be Gaza. Israel is adamantly opposed to Turkey being part of the Gaza International Stabilization Force (ISF), not to mention having Turkish troops next to Israel’s borders.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s affinity toward the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, with whom he shares the Muslim Brotherhood ideology, would, in all likelihood, not force Hamas to disarm and carry out its expulsion from Gaza. Erdoğan is hoping to mobilize all Palestinian factions against Israel and would do everything possible to keep Hamas armed and in control of Gaza. Erdoğan’s positions are religious as well as geopolitical imperatives that he hopes will weaken the Jewish state, if not destroy it outright.
Will the Americans stand by Israel in its insistence that neither Turkey nor Qatar, both supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and its Gazan offshoot, Hamas, should play a role in Gaza? Erdogan appears to have taken in Trump, whom views him as another “strong leader,” just like himself, or just like what he considers himself to be. Does he not realize that were Erdogan to be given such a role, he would not disarm Hamas, as is called for in Phase Two of the Trump Plan, and thus would sabotage Trump’s geopolitical handiwork?
The Mediterranean Sea is another area of disputation between Israel and Turkey. The alliance among Cyprus, Greece, and Israel, which establishes defined territorial boundaries for oil and gas exploration, does not sit well with Ankara. Turkey considers the Mediterranean an open sea — one whose wide swaths will help to establish its expansionist ambitions. Erdoğan is currently delivering heavy equipment to Gaza via the sea. Should he begin sending naval ships, that will definitely create a clash point.
Turkey refuses to recognize the territorial waters of Cyprus and Greece, claiming that the Turkish-occupied part of Cyprus gives Turkey its own rights to natural gas deposits under the sea around Cyprus and the Greek islands. Turkey has sent ships to search for natural gas in waters claimed by both Greece and Cyprus and has also sent naval vessels to escort those exploration ships. So far, the Turks have not found any gas, but the tensions with Cyprus and Greece remain, and at any time could escalate into a military confrontation. Israel might then feel compelled to support its two allies. It’s unclear just how reckless Erdogan will be. He may think Israel is preoccupied with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, so much so that it wants to avoid opening another front with Turkey, which has the largest land army in Europe.
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