{"id":748938,"date":"2026-07-07T18:09:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T18:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/748938\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T18:09:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T18:09:12","slug":"exclusive-netanyahu-tells-cnn-he-opposes-us-sale-of-f-35-jets-to-turkey-as-he-downplays-divisions-with-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/748938\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: Netanyahu tells CNN he opposes US sale of F-35 jets to Turkey as he downplays divisions with Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Just hours after President Donald Trump said he\u2019s considering selling<\/a> F-35 stealth fighter jets to Turkey, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke against the potential move, even as he downplayed divisions between the two world leaders.\n <\/p>\n

\n In an interview with CNN, Netanyahu warned that the sale of America\u2019s most advanced fighter aircraft \u201cdoesn\u2019t make Turkey a friendly state to the United States.\u201d In part of an escalating dispute with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Netanyahu described Ankara as \u201ca regime that\u2019s infected with the Muslim Brotherhood, which hates the United States.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cHe\u2019s not exactly a model ally of the United States,\u201d Netanyahu told CNN\u2019s Dana Bash. \u201cHe threatens to destroy my country, the one and only Jewish state.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in an interview with CNN Turk last week that Israel has \u201cbecome a burden that humanity can no longer bear,\u201d prompting Israel\u2019s foreign minister to condemn the remarks as \u201ctextbook incitement to genocide.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis is not a force for peace and stability. When you give them that power, you\u2019re going to see aggression in its wake,\u201d Netanyahu said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Netanyahu said he\u2019d urged Trump directly not to sell the jets to Turkey, saying Tuesday that doing so would \u201cdestroy the power balance in the Middle East.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n But Trump, who is in Turkey as part of the NATO summit, has indicated he is willing to overturn a ban<\/a> on the sale of the jet to Ankara that he put in place during his first term. He described Turkey as an \u201cextraordinary\u201d ally of the United States.\n <\/p>\n

\"US<\/p>\n

\n Netanyahu downplayed any divisions with Trump, saying the two see \u201ceye-to-eye\u201d on major issues, even after Trump said over the weekend that the Israeli leader \u201cknows who the boss is.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cHe\u2019s the President of the United States. He does what is good for the United States,\u201d said Netanyahu. \u201cI\u2019m the Prime Minister of Israel, I do what is what is important for Israel, and most of the time these things are identical.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Netanyahu, who publicly railed against the Iran nuclear deal under former President Barack Obama, has so far held back from condemning the current ceasefire agreement<\/a> between the US and Iran. The agreement ended a war that Netanyahu was pushing to continue and lifted longstanding sanctions on Iran\u2019s ability to sell its oil in exchange for opening the critical Strait of Hormuz. The pact also floats the possibility for hundreds of billions of dollars in additional sanctions relief should the two sides reach a permanent truce.\n <\/p>\n

\n Crucially, the agreement fails to address any of the major issues the US and Israel set out at the start of the war in late-February, including Iran\u2019s nuclear program, its ballistic missile production, its support for proxies or the stockpile of highly enriched uranium. Asked about the ceasefire agreement, Netanyahu reserved his judgement.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s too early to say what will happen,\u201d he said. \u201cThe president believes that he can stop Iran\u2019s nuclear program, and he believes he can do it through negotiations. I have my doubts, but I think he should be given the chance, and he\u2019s trying to achieve that.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Netanyahu took a far harsher attitude toward Democratic lawmakers over the party\u2019s declining support for Israel, at one point singling out New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani over his previous comments that while he supports Israel \u201cas a state with equal rights,\u201d he could not back \u201cany state that privileges one religion over the other.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s ridiculous, it\u2019s absurd,\u201d Netanyahu said, adding that while Israel is an \u201cimperfect democracy,\u201d it is still \u201c100 times better than these dictatorships and these horrible, horrible tyrannies that Mamdani and his supporters support.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n He also criticized Rep. Haley Stevens, a Jewish Democrat running for Senate in Michigan, over her comments that his actions as Israeli prime minister had made American Jews less safe.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s made her uncomfortable because she can\u2019t stand up for the truth,\u201d he said. \u201cShe\u2019s trying to probably excuse antisemitism.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Pressed on whether he bore any personal responsibility for the deteriorating support in the US for Israel<\/a>, Netanyahu dismissed the suggestion, arguing instead that social media was driving the rising opposition.\n <\/p>\n

\n Netanyahu also addressed an ongoing surge in settler violence in the occupied West Bank. Describing the perpetrators as a group of 150 \u201cjuvenile delinquents,\u201d he acknowledged the issue has \u201cblown up beyond belief.\u201d He said the police and military \u201ctake actions,\u201d but the courts in Israel \u201care very lenient\u201d against those convicted of settler violence. \u201cOur citizens cannot practice violence against anyone,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Despite Netanyahu\u2019s statements, the West Bank has seen a surge of settler violence \u2013 some with instances of Israeli soldiers standing idly by \u2013 in conjunction with the Israeli government rapidly expanding settlements throughout the territory. In a one-month period earlier this year, Israeli human rights group Yesh Din said there were 305 incidents of settler violence, including attacks on people and property and land seizures.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just hours after President Donald Trump said he\u2019s considering selling F-35 stealth fighter jets to Turkey, Israeli Prime…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":748939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-748938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=748938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/748939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}