Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu complained to President Trump on Friday about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s escalating anti-Israel rhetoric, according to Israeli and U.S. officials.
- Netanyahu also asked Trump, who will meet Erdoğan during this week’s NATO summit in Ankara, to refrain from selling weapons systems that would help Turkey modernize its air force, the officials said.
Why it matters: Israel-Turkey tensions have soared over the last two years amid the wars in Gaza and Iran. But Trump has kept close, friendly ties with both Netanyahu and Erdoğan — a key U.S. ally and regional mediator.
- Netanyahu’s standing in Washington has slipped in recent months over the Iran war, which has damaged Trump’s approval rating and divided his MAGA base.
- How much sway Netanyahu still holds is unclear — both because of Trump’s close relationship with Erdoğan, and because of the financial upside from U.S. arms sales to Turkey.
- Trump is traveling on Monday to meet Erdoğan and participate in the NATO leaders summit in Ankara.
- On the agenda: a $700 million deal for new engines for Turkey’s fighter jets, and the possibility of NATO’s second largest military re-entering the F-35 program.
- Turkey was expelled from the F-35 program in 2019 after it purchased Russia’s S-400 air defense system, which U.S. officials said could compromise the advanced fighter jet.
- Vice President Vance said last week that the Pentagon is conducting a review to determine how the U.S. could sell F-35s to Turkey despite its possession of the Russian-made missile defense system.
- “There are certain things that we have to certify have happened … in order to comply with American law. The president has asked us to do that,” Vance told reporters in the Oval Office .
- For Netanyahu, the potential arms sales are inseparable from the Erdoğan government’s increasingly hostile posture toward Israel.
- Last week, Erdoğan called Zionism “a genocidal ideology” and suggested it posed a threat to Turkey’s survival.
- Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan escalated the attack in a Turkish TV interview, calling the Israeli government “a burden that humanity can no longer bear” and “a problem for the entire world,” while urging international sanctions on Israel.
- In a Friday phone call, Netanyahu complained to Trump about Erdoğan, the sources said, and indicated he wanted the U.S. president to rein in the Turkish leader.
- “Netanyahu made an ask and the president heard him. So the president might pass on [to Erdoğan] the message like, ‘Hey, can you just go a little easy on this.’ But it is what it is,” a U.S. official said.
- The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office and the White House declined to comment.
- AXIOS
