Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Amichai Chikli warned Sunday morning that Turkey now poses “the most serious threat to the State of Israel today.”
He stated that Turkey is “building al-Julani’s Syria as a forward base from which to attack Israel.”
In his interview on Kan Reshet Bet's "This Morning" program, Chikli accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan of pursuing “a very aggressive and offensive foreign policy,” adding that “they are now building bases in northern Syria.”
According to Chikli, Turkey is “arming al-Julani’s army - the jihad army - and those soldiers are already saying where they are aiming their arrows: toward Jerusalem and elsewhere.” He warned, “Israel must understand that the danger will come from the north - from Turkey and al-Julani’s Syria.”
He added, “We must do everything possible in foreign relations to isolate Turkey. We should strengthen our ties with Cyprus and Greece - we even saw a joint naval exercise this week.”
The minister further said Israel should act in the economic sphere as well: “We need to strengthen economic cooperation too. This Eastern Mediterranean axis - Greece, Cyprus, Israel, Italy - is something we must invest in heavily. We also need to convince our friends in the U.S. that a dictator, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose opposition leaders sit in prison and who promotes poisonous antisemitic propaganda, is not an ally and cannot be part of NATO.”
Addressing reports of Israeli opposition to the sale of F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, Chikli said: “We are not enthusiastic about F-35 jets being in the hands of other states in the region that are not Israel - but if it includes normalization with Israel, it’s certainly worth discussing.”
As for potential recognition of a Palestinian state as part of a future agreement with Saudi Arabia, Chikli clarified: “The State of Israel cannot accept or declare a commitment to establish a Palestinian state in addition to the one that already exists.”