{"id":602081,"date":"2026-09-01T00:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T00:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/602081\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T00:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T00:28:12","slug":"mike-huckabee-says-he-hopes-turkey-will-become-stabilizing-force-in-middle-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/602081\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Huckabee says he hopes Turkey will become stabilizing force in Middle East"},"content":{"rendered":"

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee<\/a> is hopeful that Turkey will decide to become a stabilizing force in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we know the full extent of it \u2013 whether they are helpful or not,\u201d he told The Jerusalem Post in an interview on Monday. \u201cLet\u2019s hope that they will decide to be helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel attacked Syria\u2019s Abu al-Duhur airbase on August 18, shortly before Turkish troops and air-defense systems were deployed there.<\/p>\n

Following the airstrike, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: \u201cIsrael will continue to act forcefully against any attempts by Turkey to undermine stability in the region and against any threat to its security.\u201d<\/p>\n

The full interview with Huckabee<\/a> will be published in the Post\u2019s Frontlines section on Friday, ahead of the US Embassy in Israel\u2019s 250th Independence Day event, which is set to take place at Jerusalem\u2019s Museum of Tolerance.<\/p>\n

\"USUS Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, June 30, 2026; illustrative. (credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI\/FLASH90)<\/p>\n

Huckabee described the airstrike as a warning.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor those who are familiar with American baseball, I\u2019ll give you an analogy,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen the batter steps up to the plate and he crowds it, which means he gets a little closer than he really should be, a pitcher, particularly in the major leagues, who knows how to control the ball will throw one that\u2019ll come right across his chest and sometimes touch his jersey\u2026 The point he\u2019s making is, back away from the plate. You\u2019ve proven your point, but I\u2019m about to prove mine. If you don\u2019t step back from the plate, the next one is going to hit you hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since Israel did not kill anyone or destroy significant infrastructure \u2013 only the airport\u2019s runway was hit \u2013 Huckabee said the airstrike was \u201csort of like the pitcher in baseball brushing the batter back and saying, \u2018Okay, you\u2019re moving into an area you\u2019re not supposed to be in, and we don\u2019t think it\u2019s a good idea for you to encroach closer and closer to us. So, here\u2019s a warning.\u2019 And like in baseball, the message is: \u2018Now back up, and let\u2019s continue the game.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Turkey’s criticism of Israel on the rise<\/p>\n

In recent months, senior Turkish officials, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have sharply criticized Israel. Among other statements, Turkey\u2019s Foreign Minister<\/a> Hakan Fidan said Israel is \u201ca problem for all of humanity,\u201d and it has become \u201ca burden and a weight that humanity can no longer bear.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly, we have concerns when we hear some of the comments that come out of Turkish officials,\u201d Huckabee told the Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s also genuine concern about the avenue of financing that comes through Turkey to Hamas in Gaza,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s a serious issue that we monitor and care deeply about. The last thing anyone in the Middle East needs is anything to give it a greater level of destabilization.\u201d<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump is attempting to bridge the differences between the two countries, Huckabee said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has good relations with President Erdogan; they seem to have a good rapport,\u201d he said. \u201cBut President Trump has an excellent relationship with Prime Minister Netanyahu. He bridges that gap somehow.\u201d<\/p>\n

US working to open dialogue between Israel, Turkey, and Syria<\/p>\n

Since the airstrike, the US administration, led by US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, who is also the special envoy for Syria, has been working to establish a mechanism aimed at easing tensions between Israel, Turkey, and Syria<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last week, Mossad Director Roman Gofman met with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani to prevent further tensions and resume dialogue between the two countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last thing anyone in the Middle East needs is anything to give it a greater level of destabilization,\u201d Huckabee told the Post. \u201cSo, everyone is working hard to try to keep people talking to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

When tensions arise, he said, de-escalation requires the establishment of a mechanism, \u201cwhich now we\u2019ve done, so that there\u2019s communication between Israel, Turkey, the United States, Syria, and Lebanon, making sure that before things spin out of control, there are conversations that hopefully bring the temperature down.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee is hopeful that Turkey will decide to become a stabilizing force in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,59788,1034,43,1582,59113,64274],"class_list":["post-602081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-israel-turkey","tag-mike-huckabee","tag-news","tag-turkey","tag-us-israel","tag-us-israel-relations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602081","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=602081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}