The goals of Turkey are not shrouded in mystery. Turkish President Recep Erdoğan and officials within the nation have spent years openly calling for the invasion and annihilation of Israel as well as the “liberation” of Jerusalem from the Jews.
In a fiery speech, Erdoğan recently called for an end to the Jewish State and the “Promised Land delusion.”
“With Allah’s permission, we will never allow this,” he declared, adding that Israel’s destruction is the “duty of humanity.”
In efforts to carry out that objective, Turkey is working to position itself in Syria, moving incrementally toward the border of the Jewish State.
Israel recently watched as a Turkish delegation visited the Abu Al-Duhur airbase, which was considered one of the largest bases in Syria before it was abandoned in 2013, and sits 43 miles from the border of Turkey and less than 200 miles from Israeli communities. Israeli intelligence learned of Turkish plans to station radar and defense systems on the base in addition to the immediate deployment of Turkish troops.
After a “direct warning” given to the regime in Syria to prevent further Turkish military entrenchment went unheeded, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) were given the green light from the Prime Minister and Defense Minister to carry out strikes targeting the air base, which took place Monday evening into Tuesday morning.
Israel Defense Minister Israel Katz, describing the approval of the strike, stated that Erdogan was “caught with his hand in the cookie jar and was forced to back down,” adding, “It would be better for Erdoğan to continue his detached-from-reality, fanciful rhetoric against Israel in the Turkish Grand National Assembly than to attempt to test Israel’s determination to defend itself.”
Turkey attempted to flip the accusation, branding Israel as the perpetrator of “expansionist and destabilizing policies.” Netanyahu’s international spokesman Doron Spielman responded with a recorded presentation highlighting that the Jewish State has deployed troops in only “one-10th of 1%” of Syria (near the Golan Heights); meanwhile, Turkey has amassed a “substantial military presence” occupying roughly 5% of Syrian territory—constituting a 50 times larger presence than Israel.
“We will not allow Turkey to entrench itself in Syria and to be moving steadily south toward Israel’s border,” Spielman underscored, emphasizing the dangerous rhetoric from Ankara calling for the obliteration of the Jewish State, as well as the United States (a fellow NATO ally to Turkey).
On Friday, Erdogan urged Interpol to issue a “Red Notice” against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and 35 other Israeli officials, requesting that international law enforcement begin efforts to locate, arrest, and extradite the Israelis for prosecution. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) called the move a “pathetic attempt to intimidate the leaders and soldiers of Israel,” adding that the Red Notice demand “will go nowhere.”
“Erdogan is an antisemitic dictator who has massacred Kurds, harbors Hamas terrorists, occupies half of Cyprus, and jails record numbers of journalists and politicians who oppose him,” the PMO statement detailed. “He now seeks to extend his aggression against Israel into Syria. Israel will not tolerate it.”
Arutz Sheva, in a timely op-ed titled “The Mask of NATO Has Fallen: Turkey is revealed as a mortal threat to Israel and the West,” emphasized the absurdity that Turkey maintains NATO protections, calling it an “act of strategic suicide for the Western world and a direct, existential threat to the survival of Israel.”
“For nearly half a century, the political capitals of the Western world have indulged in an unpardonable strategic delusion,” the article began. “They have meticulously maintained the comfortable fiction that Turkey is an indispensable, if somewhat recalcitrant, North Atlantic Treaty Organization ally. They have systematically turned a blind eye to imperialist expansionism, systemic domestic tyranny, and the methodical projection of radical Islamist influence across the globe.”
“Today, that luxury of strategic willful blindness is utterly shattered,” the writer underscored. “On the ground, this ideological enmity [of Turkey] has manifested as a direct, aggressive military escalation aimed at altering the regional balance of power. Turkey is expanding its military presence across Syria and pushing as close to Israel as possible. The geopolitical intent behind these troop movements is transparent to any serious military analyst. Through the establishment of illegal occupation zones, fortified outposts, and the integration of radical Syrian militias into auxiliary forces, Ankara is creating an unyielding territorial foothold. Israel’s targeted strike on Abu Dhur airport in Idlib was a warning shot across the Turkish bow, not a Syrian one. It was a direct, unambiguous signal that Jerusalem recognizes the encroaching menace on its northern border and will not permit an aggressive military cordon to tighten around its territory.”
“The time for diplomatic appeasement, transactional compromises, and willful blindness has passed,” the article continued. “Western nations must confront the reality of the Turkish threat… before the strategic damage becomes irreversible.”
The escalation between Israel and Turkey is incredibly relevant to Christians. Through the Bible, we are assured that Turkish goals to invade the Jewish State will not remain rhetoric for long. Ezekiel 38 details a future battle in which Turkey joins forces with Iran, Russia, and others to wage an invasion, swarming down with their armies on the mountains of Israel from the North.
North of the mountains of Israel today sits the highly destabilized nation of Syria, whose rag-tag army frequently chants threats against the Jewish State.
Earlier this month, the Syrian Arab Army in Damascus was filmed shouting, “A storm has risen! Rain down destruction in the heat of battle! Coming for you, Jew, I am coming at you like a mountain of fire! Making ammunition for you out of my own body! Making rivers out of your blood! Allahu Akbar!”
Syria’s capital is also prophetically significant. In Isaiah 17:1, we read of an unknown future event that will render Damascus an uninhabitable “ruinous heap.” Though it is not stated how this destruction will take place, Syria remains an important nation to watch closely.
Days ago, Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), detailed that the UN nuclear watchdog uncovered a significant amount of Assad-era nuclear material in “Site 99,” a facility bombed by the IDF following the fall of the previous regime to close access to the new rebel government.
“We are talking about a few tons of nuclear material that could be put to bad use,” Grossi stressed.
Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani insisted they intend to keep the nuclear material in “Syrian national custody” for “civilian and peaceful purposes,” which Damascus called its “sovereign and legal right.”
According to reports cited by Arutz Sheva, “Jerusalem communicated firmly to Washington that it would not tolerate nuclear material remaining inside Syrian borders.”
As the situation around the nation of Israel becomes increasingly volatile, we may not know what shifts, escalations, or rhetoric will emerge in the coming days and months. What we do know is that prophesied events will take place in the future, precisely as the Bible detailed—and the survival of Israel is not in question.
None of the schemes to annihilate Israel from her many enemies will come to fruition. Even when the Jewish State is unable to adequately defend itself militarily, as detailed in Ezekiel 38-39, God Himself will directly intervene to ensure Israel’s protection for all to see. Turkey may call on the false god of Islam to assist in the invasion and destruction of the so-called “Promised Land delusion”; in doing so, like the prophets of Baal in the time of Elijah, the unwitting result will be the glorification of the God of Israel, in a miraculous demonstration of almighty power.
