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WASHINGTON — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly asked President Trump Monday not to send advanced F-35 fighter jets to Turkey, warning the shipment would “upset the power balance” in the region.
One of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s goals heading into this week’s NATO summit in Ankara is to get his country readmitted into the F-35 program, despite bipartisan resistance in Washington.
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“Turkey is a great country, but it’s governed by a man who calls openly for the annihilation of Israel,” Netanyahu told “Fox & Friends”. “He occupies half of Cyprus, a NATO country. He’s threatening Greece, another NATO country. And he talks openly about conquering Jerusalem.”
“I don’t think they should be given F-35s or the engines for their fighter jets because that’ll upset the power balance in the Middle East, which is ultimately guaranteed by Israeli air superiority and also by America’s posture in the Middle East.”
F-35s are considered the most powerful and versatile fighter jets in the world, with Israel’s air force boasting at least three dozen in their fleet.
Turkey was booted from the F-35 fighter jet program in 2019 after it purchased the Russian S-400 missile system, which US officials feared could could be used to learn about the F-35’s capabilities.
Although Turkey touts the second-largest army in NATO after the US, it has repeatedly butted heads with other European members of the powerful military alliance — most notably Greece over centuries-old territorial claims in the Aegean Sea.
Turkey was briefly sanctioned by the US and several European countries after Erdogan ordered a major military offensive and bombardment targeting Kurds in northern Syria in 2019.
The NATO member has a complex relationship with Russia, having shot down a Su-24 fighter jet that penetrated its airspace in 2015, for which Erdogan later apologized.
In 2023, after the invasion of Ukraine, Erdogan declared: “I trust Russia just as much as I trust the West.”
Still, Turkey has provided Ukraine with military support and appeared keen on undermining Russian domination of the Black Sea. Erdogan has also backed Ukraine’s bid to join NATO, despite recently objecting to Finland’s and Sweden’s admission into the alliance over Stockholm’s harboring of Kurdish activists.
Erdogan and his allies have been fiercely critical of Israel since its war against Hamas in response to the bloody Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack.
“His foreign minister, his number two, said that the Jewish state hasn’t a place among humanity,” Netanyahu vented. “Basically, it has to be wiped out. His interior minister, he looks forward to be the government, governor of Jerusalem.”
Netanyahu further blasted Turkey as “a regime infected by the Muslim Brotherhood, an extreme movement that hates America and chants ‘Death to America’ from that side of the spectrum.”
Trump has frequently lavished praise on Erdogan, referring to him as an “extraordinary leader” and a “good friend.”
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