{"id":591959,"date":"2026-08-21T21:46:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T21:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/591959\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T21:46:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T21:46:12","slug":"israel-defends-syria-strike-warns-against-turkish-military-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/591959\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel defends Syria strike, warns against Turkish military expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Prime Minister\u2019s Office spokesman\u2019s video<\/p>\n

(Prime Minister\u2019s Office)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

By contrast, he said, Israel holds approximately one-tenth of 1% in southern Syria, \u201calong a border that has threats from Hezbollah and ISIS and other terror organizations. Which means that Turkey, that has no threats, is holding 50 times more Syrian territory than Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than a year ago, Israel and Syria reached an understanding to maintain the security status quo and to keep this border calm,\u201d Spielman said. According to him, Syria breached that understanding after Israeli intelligence identified that Turkish troops were about to deploy at the Abu al-Dahour airbase in northern Syria, less than 200 miles from Israeli towns and communities.<\/p>\n

\"\u05d4\u05d3\u05d5\u05d1\u05e8<\/a>\"\u05d4\u05d3\u05d5\u05d1\u05e8<\/p>\n

The distance from the base to the Israeli border. ‘We will not allow Turkey to advance south toward us’ <\/p>\n

(Photo: Prime Minister\u2019s Office)<\/p>\n

\u201cPrime Minister Netanyahu made Israel\u2019s position very clear,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will not allow Turkey to entrench itself in Syria and to be moving steadily south toward Israel\u2019s border.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Spielman, Israel repeatedly warned Syria: \u201cDon\u2019t do it. We know that Syria received those warnings and that it chose to ignore them.\u201d He said that Israel therefore \u201cdelivered the message in another way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later in the video, the prime minister\u2019s spokesman addressed the question of why a Turkish presence in Syria should concern Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, some might ask, why should Israel be concerned about Turkish forces in Syria?\u201d he said. \u201cWell, because Turkish President Erdogan has openly called for Israel\u2019s destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that Erdogan has also spoken negatively about the United States, Israel\u2019s closest partner, saying: \u201cA just world is possible, but not with America.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIs this the kind of guy you would want on your border?\u201d Spielman asked.<\/p>\n

According to Spielman, the events of Oct. 7 demonstrated the danger of ignoring statements made by enemies.<\/p>\n

\"<\/a>\"<\/p>\n

Netanyahu and Erdogan <\/p>\n

(Photo: AP\/Yuki Iwamura, Kawnat HAJU \/ AFP, REUTERS\/Ronen Zvulun\/Pool)<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Oct. 7 made it clear to everyone,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen your enemy tells you that he wants to destroy you, you should probably believe him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alongside the harsh statements against Ankara, the spokesman emphasized Prime Minister Netanyahu\u2019s position that Israel does not want an escalation.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrime Minister Netanyahu has also made something else very clear. Israel welcomes a return to the previous status quo. We are not looking for escalation,\u201d he said. \u201cBut neither Turkey nor any other country is going to threaten the State of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

The unusual strike prompted an exceptional U.S. condemnation. Tom Barrack, the U.S. envoy to Syria and Turkey, said that such strikes \u201ccould increase the Turkish presence in the region in the near future\u201d and said Turkey had not been warned in advance and therefore could have attacked Israel in response.<\/p>\n

The deterioration in relations with Turkey came almost immediately. Netanyahu told the Turks, \u201cDon\u2019t.\u201d They announced that they had issued an arrest warrant and a \u201cred notice\u201d against the prime minister, and he called Erdogan an \u201cantisemitic dictator.\u201d On Friday evening, the Turkish presidency said that \u201cthe Netanyahu government\u2019s efforts to portray Turkey as a new threat are part of its election strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Prime Minister\u2019s Office spokesman\u2019s video (Prime Minister\u2019s Office) By contrast, he said, Israel holds approximately one-tenth of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-591959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}