History, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a recent Channel 14 interview, “teaches that when one regional power declines, another rises. Our task is to make sure Israel continues rising faster than anyone else.” This explains why Netanyahu launched a public campaign in the US this week against President Donald Trump’s apparent willingness to sell the state-of-the-art F-35 fighter to Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Turkey, the state now furiously jockeying to replace Iran as the region’s dominant power.
Indeed, with the sun setting on Iran’s regional hegemony, despite diplomatic missteps that let Tehran off the ropes before a knockout blow, its military capabilities and web of regional proxies have been severely degraded, the sun is rising on Turkey’s ambitions. Already entrenched in Syria, steadily expanding an indigenous defense industry capable of producing sophisticated drones, naval vessels, and eventually advanced fighter aircraft, and seeking a foothold in Gaza, Ankara increasingly appears intent on filling the regional vacuum Iran leaves behind.
As former national security adviser Giora Eiland observed this week, Iran sought to surround Israel with a Shi’ite ring of fire. Turkey, he warned, increasingly appears interested in building a Sunni one. That explains why Netanyahu went on American television networks to lobby publicly against an administration policy still under consideration. If Iran’s decline is creating a regional vacuum, Israel fears Turkey is positioning itself to fill it, and that American F-35s, coupled with Trump’s embrace of Erdogan, might help it do so. Trump, however, sees matters much differently. (Ed note: And we know that both Gomer and Persia will make an appearance in Ezekiel 38:5-6. Check it out.) (Read More)
