planned<\/a> to station troops, radar and an air defense system there. Ankara denied it. The bombing marked a significant expansion of Israel\u2019s military activities in Syria to an area near the Turkish border. Will it lead to a strategic collision between the United States and Israel?<\/p>\nU.S. President Donald Trump has embraced Syria\u2019s new president, Ahmed al-Shaara, and repeatedly praised Turkey\u2019s President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan, with whom he boasts he has a \u201cspecial relationship.\u201d Following the strike, during an Aug. 21 interview, United States Ambassador to Turkey and Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack criticized Israel\u2019s actions as an \u201cunnecessary escalation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Israel vigorously defended its decision to hit the airbase. Defense Minister Israel Katz said Barrack\u2019s remarks were \u201cfull of inaccuracies\u201d and contradicted Trump\u2019s own position. Israel had shared intelligence with the U.S. prior to the attack, he said, refuting Barrack\u2019s claim that it had not.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Israeli strike in northern Syria was indeed unique, because basically Israel\u2019s interests lie in southern Syria,\u201d Gallia Lindenstrauss, a specialist on Turkey and senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Tel Aviv, told JNS.<\/p>\n
The strike brings to the fore a conflict of interests between Israel and the U.S., she explained, though calling it a \u201cstrategic collision\u201d is \u201cgoing a bit too far.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Trump administration supports al-Shaara. It\u2019s looking for an \u201canchor of stability\u201d in the region, which can promote trade and energy routes. In May 2025, the U.S. announced it was lifting sanctions on Syria, opening the way to foreign investment. \u201cThis is very much in line with Turkish interests,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s concerns are security driven. It doesn\u2019t want to see Turkey establish military bases in Syria. It wants al-Shaara strong enough to control his territory and prevent extremist elements from forming in southern Syria, but not so strong that his forces threaten Israel.<\/p>\n
The differing goals between the U.S. and Israel may give Jerusalem less room for maneuver. \u201cIt makes it more likely that at some point the U.S. will tell Israel: \u2018Enough\u2019. Not only will it be critical of Israel\u2019s actions in northern Syria, but also less attentive to Israel\u2019s requirements in southeastern Syria,\u201d Lindenstrauss said.<\/p>\n
Trump has already, according to reports, urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to withdraw from Syria in a July phone call, she noted.<\/p>\n
Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak, a researcher at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security and the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, agreed that the airstrike will not lead to a crisis between the U.S. and Israel, telling JNS, \u201cThis does not necessarily create a strategic collision. The United States is a major power with sufficient diplomatic capacity to develop its emerging relationship with Syria without jeopardizing its special relationship with Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201ccomplicating factor\u201d is not the U.S. administration but U.S. ambassador to Turkey, \u201cwho appears to have assumed considerable latitude in publicly articulating positions that do not always align with those emanating from Washington,\u201d Cohen Yanarocak said. \u201cThe time may have come [for the administration] to reconsider the unusually broad degree of autonomy afforded to Barrack.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barrack clearly went too far. He walked back comments in his Aug. 21 interview referring to the Golan Heights as territory occupied by Israel. The U.S., during Trump\u2019s first term, recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan, captured from Syria in the Six-Day War.<\/p>\n
Lindenstrauss concurred that Barrack is \u201cthe most pro-Turkish element in the Trump administration.\u201d<\/p>\n
A path toward direct confrontation?<\/p>\n
Cohen Yanarocak and Lindenstrauss disagree on whether Israel\u2019s actions were necessary.<\/p>\n
Lindenstrauss said Israel\u2019s strategy is unclear. \u201cLet\u2019s say that Turkey helps Syria establish air defenses in northern Syria. It\u2019s not that big of a difference if this is also operated out of southern Turkey. It\u2019s not a big distance, so I don\u2019t see the great tactical benefit from having these systems [there],\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
While Israel has \u201clegitimate\u201d security concerns in southern Syria, Turkey has enjoyed a presence in northern Syria since 2016. Israel might risk its legitimate concerns in southern Syria; that is, test Trump\u2019s patience, by attempting to check Turkey in the north, she said. \u201cIsrael might lose its ability to protect its vital interests in southern Syria.\u201d <\/p>\n
Cohen Yanarocak, however, said the strike was a \u201cjustified step\u201d whose goal was to \u201cavert a potentially more serious confrontation between Israel and Turkey in the future. The central objective, I would reiterate, must be to ensure that Israel and Turkey do not find themselves on an irreversible path toward direct confrontation.\u201d<\/p>\n
As to whether the Israeli airstrike will have the desired effect and prevent Ankara from setting up its own bases in Syria, \u201conly time will tell,\u201d he said. \u201cIn the short term, however, Turkey will most likely focus its efforts on arming and strengthening the Syrian military.\u201d Not Israel, but the U.S., \u201cwill be the most consequential actor, as Washington\u2019s position will largely shape the parameters within which Turkey can pursue this policy.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Israel\u2019s airstrike, Barrack said the U.S. will establish a deconfliction mechanism between Israel, Turkey and Syria. Lindenstrauss noted that a hot line between Israel and Turkey already exists, so \u201cmaybe this means an expanded deconfliction mechanism. It\u2019s true that definitely Turkish-Israel relations need more communication channels. Any expansion of them is probably going to be to the benefit of both countries.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cohen Yanarocak is not optimistic the situation will improve. While \u201cthe restoration of relations between Israel and Turkey remains my greatest hope,\u201d Ankara seems intent on turning Syria into a new \u201cNorth Cyprus,\u201d he said. He doesn\u2019t expect a \u201crapprochement or normalization.\u201d<\/p>\n
That certainly seems to be the case as Israel and Turkey engage in a war of words since the Aug. 18 attack. On Saturday, Jerusalem condemned<\/a> Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan for antisemitic incitement after he branded Zionism a \u201cgenocidal ideology.\u201d<\/p>\nIsrael\u2019s Foreign Ministry said that Erdo\u011fan was reaching \u201cnew heights of wild incitement against the Jewish state in an attempt to divert attention from his actions against his own people and across the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike the worst antisemites in history, Erdo\u011fan seeks to deflect attention from his own disgraceful actions by spreading false blood libels,\u201d the ministry said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Aug. 31, 2026 \/ JNS) On Aug. 18, Israel bombed Syria\u2019s Abu al-Duhur Airbase, claiming Turkey planned to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-602287","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\/602287","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=602287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}