Why President Trump insists on Turkey’s involvement in Gaza: Paybacks … and oil

As the formation of the Gaza Board of Peace (BoP) steams ahead with invitations to a diverse collection of individuals and politicians from around the world, Israel is laser-focused on two specific recipients: Turkey and Qatar. Why is Trump seemingly ignoring virulent Israeli opposition to a Turkish presence in Gaza specifically? “The answer to this question is very clear: Everything is because of Syria,” Turkey expert Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak, PhD, told ALL ISRAEL NEWS. “When you compare his first term to his second term, you see the U.S. could never have penetrated Syria in its entire history.”

A friendly rapport between U.S. President Donald Trump and Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, makes American involvement in Syria now possible, explained Yanarocak, a researcher at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University. Syria was under Ottoman rule until 1918. Then the French stepped in, followed by the former Soviet Union, and then Iranian influence. With the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his regime in December 2024, Turkey has become the most prominent foreign nation in Syria.

This holds promise for Turkey’s allies of geographic and economic advantages – including access to oil – and likely is what accounts for a conciliatory U.S. foreign policy toward the nascent Syrian government under President Mohammed al Jolani (Ahmed al-Sharaa) and the lifting of sanctions. Jolani is formerly affiliated with both al-Qaeda and ISIS terrorist organizations. (Ed note: A very interesting article about the old man of Turkey who wants to renew the Ottoman Empire, and he won't be able to help himself, he will be after Israel, because he hates them so.) (Read More)