Turkey is positioning itself as the most consequential military threat facing Israel in the north, and this week’s NATO summit in Ankara has put that threat on full display. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is pressing President Trump to readmit Turkey to the F-35 stealth fighter program, while Turkish-backed forces expand their footprint inside a fractured Syria, threaten the Kurdish population that has fought alongside the United States for a decade, and as Ankara continues to host and protect leaders of Hamas.
As the diplomatic maneuvering unfolds in Ankara, the Sanhedrin, the reconstituted rabbinical court that traces its authority to the ancient Jewish high court, has issued its own pronouncement on the matter, invoking a biblical promise that nations that curse the people of Israel will themselves be cursed.
Turkey was removed from the F-35 program in 2019 after it purchased Russia’s S-400 air defense system, a system built specifically to detect and shoot down US aircraft like the F-35. American officials determined that operating the S-400 alongside the F-35 would allow Russian technicians to study the jet’s radar signature and stealth profile, handing Moscow a blueprint for defeating the very aircraft Turkey wanted to fly. Washington canceled the sale rather than risk exposing its most advanced fighter to a system designed to kill it.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has renewed the argument in recent days, telling Fox News that supplying Turkey with F-35s or advanced fighter engines would upset the regional balance of power and threaten Israel’s air superiority.
Netanyahu described Erdogan as a leader who has called for Israel’s annihilation, occupies part of Cyprus, threatens Greece, and backs Hamas. “The balance of power in the Middle East is ultimately protected by Israel’s air superiority and America’s posture in the region,” Netanyahu said.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar confirmed that Israel has objected directly to Washington. “We made clear that we oppose supplying F-35s to Turkey,” Sa’ar said. “The prime minister himself said this to Trump. It is critical that Israel, in the region where we live, preserve its qualitative military edge.” That doctrine, known as Israel’s qualitative military edge or QME, is written into American law and requires Washington to ensure Israel maintains a technological and tactical advantage over every other military in the region.
Turkey’s military expansion into Syria has accelerated sharply since the fall of Bashar Assad’s regime in December 2024. With Assad gone and Syria’s central authority shattered, Ankara has moved to fill the vacuum, pushing air defense systems and garrisons toward Palmyra and the T-4 air base in central Syria. Those positions sit close enough to threaten Israeli aircraft operating over southern Syria...
Israeli officials have warned that if Turkey continues to expand its bases and military presence in Syria, Israel will consider taking equivalent measures on its own side of the border. Turkish drones have already tested Israeli air defenses in the area, and Israeli jets have struck Turkish-linked positions to slow the buildup before it solidifies.
Turkey has also become a safe harbor for Hamas leadership. Ankara has hosted Hamas delegations, permitted members of the terrorist organization to operate from Turkish soil, and reportedly issued Turkish passports to Hamas operatives, allowing men wanted for orchestrating terror attacks against Israeli civilians to travel under Turkish diplomatic cover
Erdogan’s ambitions extend well beyond any single dispute over fighter jets. He has repeatedly cast himself as a defender of the Muslim world and has spoken in terms that evoke the Ottoman Empire, which ruled Jerusalem and the wider Middle East for four centuries until its collapse after the First World War. Turkish officials under Erdogan have cultivated ties with the Muslim Brotherhood across the region...
Erdogan has said Turkey could act militarily against Israel the way it acted in Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh, and he has told Turkish audiences that a Jerusalem under full Israeli sovereignty is unacceptable.
It is against this backdrop that the Sanhedrin issued a formal ruling last week, addressing the nations of the world, and specifically Turkey.
The Sanhedrin’s ruling rests on a specific biblical promise, one the court cites directly: “I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and all the families of the earth shall be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:3). This is God’s covenant with Abraham, and the court states plainly that the covenant has never been broken or suspended. A second verse follows the same theme: “Cursed be those who curse you, and blessed be those who bless you” (Genesis 27:29), Isaac’s blessing to Jacob.
The full ruling, issued by the Sanhedrin’s sitting court, reads as follows:
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