Former Israeli PM Calls Turkey ‘the New Iran’
As the United States and Israel escalate their military campaign against Iran, a former Israeli prime minister has cast Turkey as “the new Iran” in the region, fueling speculation about a potential confrontation between two regional powers.
While global attention remains fixated on the ongoing war between Iran and Israel — and the United States’ expanding role in it — a former Israeli prime minister had unwittingly revealed what could be next on Tel Aviv’s regional hit list — Turkey.
In a speech on Feb. 16, Bennett pointed to Turkey “as the new Iran in the region,” a comment that has taken on added significance amid escalating regional tensions.
His remarks came shortly before the U.S. and Israel launched a sweeping military operation against Iran’s leadership. Within days, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader (velayat-i faqih), was killed in a strike on a compound in downtown Tehran during what officials described as a high-level security meeting. U.S. military sources reported that the strikes severely degraded the command-and-control structure of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
In retaliation, the IRGC targeted U.S. bases across the region. At least three U.S. servicemen were killed, while hundreds of Iranians have died in the latest phase of the conflict.
After months of lobbying by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. President Donald J. Trump eventually authorized the operation against Iran, effectively killing the ongoing negotiations between the American and Iranian delegations in Geneva. The Oman-mediated talks were still underway when U.S. fighter jets reportedly launched from the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln in the Gulf of Oman early Saturday morning local time in Tehran.
While the Iranian regime is fighting for its very own survival, Israel’s ruling elites have already turned their sight on a new target in the region.
“A new Turkish threat is emerging,” Bennett said to a weary audience. “I want to be very clear. Turkey and Qatar have gained influence in Syria, are seeking influence elsewhere and everywhere throughout the region. And from here, I warn: Turkey is the new Iran.”
In a speech on Feb. 16, the former Israeli PM rattled off a litany of complaints against the Turkish ruler.
“Erdogan is sophisticated, dangerous and he seeks to encircle Israel. And while some senior Israelis politicians were on Qatar’s payroll, Qatar and Turkey are nourishing the Islamic Brotherhood monster that is growing and eventually might become as dangerous as the one created by Iran.”
While Bennett’s remarks took place more than two weeks ago, the video of his speech racked up 3.5 million new views on Sunday and went viral on X.
“Turkey and Qatar are gaining influence not only in Syria, but also in Gaza, through the front door and everywhere, and trying to create a new choke ring. Turkey is trying to flip Saudi Arabia against us and establish a hostile Sunni axis with nuclear Pakistan.”
As internet sleuths salvaged the Bennett video from obscurity on the second day of the American and Israeli campaign against Iran, it prompted a widespread reaction online.
Former U.S. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has recently broken with President Trump’s foreign policy approach, questioned the implications. “Wake up everyone!!!” she wrote.
“Is this why we have to leave NATO? So we can attack a NATO country on behalf of Israel?” journalist Ryan Grim asked, raising the NATO dimension that didn’t go unnoticed for many observers.
Any Israeli attack against Turkey would place NATO’s Article 5 collective defense clause at the center of the crisis — the provision that has bound the alliance together since its founding in 1949. But NATO’s future has already been clouded by simmering doubts after President Trump assailed the organization and pressed members over unmet defense spending targets.
Trump repeatedly bemoaned that European allies were shifting the burden of defense to the U.S. by deliberately underinvesting in their own security. Yet the deeper and more lasting damage of his administration lay in undermining faith in NATO’s sacrosanct Article 5 guarantee, as he equivocated on America’s commitment to defend member states against an attack, such as one from Russia.
In the event of an Israel-Turkey confrontation, the U.S. would be torn between its strategic commitment to protect Israel and its treaty obligations to NATO ally, Turkey. But if the clash happens in Syria, things would take a different course.
Independent journalist Glenn Greenwald did not mask his disbelief.
“US war with Turkey in 5 years or so was just announced and decreed,” he wrote on X, referencing Bennett’s remarks.
“NATO boosters are notably silent about these threats against a NATO country,” wrote The Nation’s Jeet Heer.
After the downfall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, Israel and Turkey found themselves at loggerheads over the country’s reconstruction and future political order. Tel Aviv has grown alarmed by Turkey’s unyielding support for Palestine and its denunciation of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza. Ankara’s eagerness to rebuild the Syrian army and bolster the new government in Damascus, coupled with Israel’s aggressive military operations inside Syria and across the region, have become the central points of contention between the two powers. As a result, the geopolitical tug-of-war over the post-Assad order has placed Washington’s two most important regional partners on a potential collision course.
If Ankara were to be cast as Israel’s next primary adversary, the United States could find itself navigating a deeply uncomfortable contradiction inside the NATO alliance itself.
For now, a direct Israel–Turkey confrontation remains hypothetical. But as the war with Iran reshapes the regional balance of power, Bennett’s warning raises a larger question: if Iran were the immediate front, who stands next in line?
Retired Col. Douglas MacGregor thinks that “after successfully destroying Iran, attention will turn to the destruction of Turkey.”
On a YouTube program, he candidly ventured into the dreaded prospect of a clash between Turkey and Israel, both U.S. allies. “Inevitably, Turkey will face off against Israel; this will likely happen in Syria.”
MacGregor argued that Turkey would not be another Iran for Israel. “In many respects, Turkey is superior to Iran. It has a real navy and possesses the best army in NATO.”
The former U.S. colonel, who is critical of the American involvement in Israel’s war against Iran, is brutally honest about the likelihood of a doomsday scenario between Ankara and Tel Aviv.
“The next step is the destruction of Turkey. So let’s not deceive ourselves; that is what this is all about.”
