Turkey an Increasing Threat to Israel

Stand for Israel  |  July 15, 2020

For those of us who stand for Israel, the threat to Israel from Turkey never came as a surprise. But now, hopefully, the world has begun to take notice of Turkish sentiment against the Jewish state and the Jewish people. The Jerusalem Post provides this look at how, especially in light of recent developments, Turkish dictator Erdogan and his nation are truly a threat to Israel:

The rising chorus of anti-Israel statements from Turkey, particularly when it comes to the toxic blending of religious and extreme nationalist rhetoric from the ruling party, is becoming an increasing threat to Israel and regional stability.

After Turkey announced that it would turn the museum of Hagia Sophia back into a mosque, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Ankara would next “liberate” Al-Aqsa. In recent months, Turkey’s religious affairs ministry and other voices in the government have repeatedly pushed a message claiming they want to “unite the Islamic community” against the State of Israel…

For years, the leading narrative was that while Iran is a threat to Israel, Ankara and Jerusalem have historic relations. But those relations took a radical turn for the worse after the 2009 war in Gaza. Since then, what was once a flowing relationship in the 1990s, has become increasingly hostile on multiple levels. There is antisemitism in Turkey and the active spreading of Jewish-Israel conspiracy theories. There is also more mobilizing of far-right religious networks, such as those behind the Mavi Marmara flotilla that sought to break the Israel-imposed naval blockade over the Gaza Strip.

In addition, Turkey’s current government is a close ally of Hamas. Iran and Turkey both support Hamas, much as they tend to view the US role in eastern Syria through a hostile lens. Turkey and Iran have also both made Jerusalem – or “Al-Quds” as they call it – a center of their foreign policy…