24 August 2026•Update: 24 August 2026
Ilnur Cevik is the former editor-in-chief of the Turkish Daily News and served as chief adviser to late Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel, late Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, also known to his people as Bibi, seems to have run out of adversaries to create for himself and has gone out of his way to target Türkiye as his new “enemy” to pick a fight with and use this to remain in power in the late October elections.
It is no secret that Netanyahu was in deep trouble, facing corruption charges and allegations of irregularities, while his popularity was sagging even among conservative voters in Israel. So, he flattened the Gaza Strip, committed genocide in Palestine, including against women and children, and dragged the US into a war with Iran that is now in a troubling stalemate. The aim was to convince conservative Israeli voters that he is the one who can keep Israel “safe” and that they have to re-elect him.
When he realized he was getting nowhere in the war with Iran and public anger was rising in Israel, he seems to have picked Türkiye as his target and pushed Israel into new adventures.
Personal vendetta and regional sabotage
It is clear that Netanyahu harbors personal animosity toward President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Turkish-Israeli relations will never recover without Netanyahu leaving office. But Netanyahu’s blind enmity toward Erdogan is one thing, and creating enmity between the people of Israel and the Turks is quite another.
Netanyahu’s ultra-conservative government has been progressively sowing the seeds of discord with Türkiye, especially after Ankara gained the upper hand in Syria and started helping rebuild the country in every field. While the Americans contributed very positively to Türkiye’s efforts in Syria, it is strange that Israel viewed this as unwanted and acted to sabotage these moves.
Choosing Syria as a theater of confrontation rather than a space for regional stability is senseless. Türkiye potentially setting up an airbase near Aleppo, only a short distance from its southern borders, poses no strategic threat to Israel. Furthermore, if Ankara actually harbored hostile intentions against Israel, the geographical difference between using a base in Aleppo and using its existing bases in southern Türkiye would be completely negligible. Plus, what Netanyahu has done by bombing an airbase near Aleppo hardly constitutes a challenge; it could only be an election campaign stunt.
The international community should be thankful that there is one grown-up in the room who acted maturely and calmly when Türkiye dismissed the Israeli airstrikes as a provocation aimed at bolstering Netanyahu’s popularity in the run-up to the elections.
Türkiye: An anchor of peace in a volatile region
Türkiye is a formidable and influential force in the region and a member of the NATO alliance. In fact, it has the second-largest army in NATO after the US and is regarded as a golden asset by its allies. It has been an island of peace in the Middle East and a problem solver, mediating between Ukraine and Russia, Iran and the US, and even making peace efforts in Africa. It has never had expansionist or aggressive designs against any country, despite the fact that it has a war-toughened army due to decades-old military operations against PKK terrorists inside Türkiye, in Iraq and recently in Syria. Besides, it has a thriving defense industry recognized internationally.
Even at the worst of times over the decades, Türkiye has never challenged the right of Israel to exist, and President Erdogan is known to believe that an Israeli child has the right to sleep in peace in his or her home as much as a Palestinian child does.
Many analysts believe that any potential normalization of bilateral relations remains entirely contingent on Netanyahu’s departure from the political picture.
*Opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Anadolu.