Just hours after President Donald Trump mentioned he’s considering selling F-35 stealth fighter jets to Turkey, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke towards the potential transfer, even as he downplayed divisions between the 2 world leaders.
In an interview with NCS, Netanyahu warned that the sale of America’s most superior fighter plane “doesn’t make Turkey a friendly state to the United States.” In half of an escalating dispute with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Netanyahu described Ankara as “a regime that’s infected with the Muslim Brotherhood, which hates the United States.”
“He’s not exactly a model ally of the United States,” Netanyahu informed NCS’s Dana Bash. “He threatens to destroy my country, the one and only Jewish state.”
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan mentioned in an interview with NCS Turk final week that Israel has “become a burden that humanity can no longer bear,” prompting Israel’s international minister to condemn the remarks as “textbook incitement to genocide.”
“This is not a force for peace and stability. When you give them that power, you’re going to see aggression in its wake,” Netanyahu mentioned.
Netanyahu mentioned he’d urged Trump instantly not to promote the jets to Turkey, saying Tuesday that doing so would “destroy the power balance in the Middle East.”
But Trump, who’s in Turkey as half of the NATO summit, has indicated he is willing to overturn a ban on the sale of the jet to Ankara that he put in place throughout his first time period. He described Turkey as an “extraordinary” ally of the United States.
Netanyahu downplayed any divisions with Trump, saying the 2 see “eye-to-eye” on main points, even after Trump mentioned over the weekend that the Israeli chief “knows who the boss is.”
“He’s the President of the United States. He does what is good for the United States,” mentioned Netanyahu. “I’m the Prime Minister of Israel, I do what is what is important for Israel, and most of the time these things are identical.”
Netanyahu, who publicly railed towards the Iran nuclear deal beneath former President Barack Obama, has thus far held again from condemning the current ceasefire agreement between the US and Iran. The settlement ended a struggle that Netanyahu was pushing to proceed and lifted longstanding sanctions on Iran’s capacity to promote its oil in trade for opening the vital Strait of Hormuz. The pact additionally floats the chance for a whole bunch of billions of {dollars} in further sanctions reduction ought to the 2 sides attain a everlasting truce.
Crucially, the settlement fails to tackle any of the foremost points the US and Israel set out at first of the struggle in late-February, together with Iran’s nuclear program, its ballistic missile manufacturing, its help for proxies or the stockpile of extremely enriched uranium. Asked in regards to the ceasefire settlement, Netanyahu reserved his judgement.
“It’s too early to say what will happen,” he mentioned. “The president believes that he can stop Iran’s nuclear program, and he believes he can do it through negotiations. I have my doubts, but I think he should be given the chance, and he’s trying to achieve that.”
Netanyahu took a far harsher angle towards Democratic lawmakers over the social gathering’s declining help for Israel, at one level singling out New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani over his earlier feedback that whereas he helps Israel “as a state with equal rights,” he couldn’t again “any state that privileges one religion over the other.”
“It’s ridiculous, it’s absurd,” Netanyahu mentioned, including that whereas Israel is an “imperfect democracy,” it’s nonetheless “100 times better than these dictatorships and these horrible, horrible tyrannies that Mamdani and his supporters support.”
He additionally criticized Rep. Haley Stevens, a Jewish Democrat working for Senate in Michigan, over her feedback that his actions as Israeli prime minister had made American Jews much less protected.
“It’s made her uncomfortable because she can’t stand up for the truth,” he mentioned. “She’s trying to probably excuse antisemitism.”
Pressed on whether or not he bore any private accountability for the deteriorating support in the US for Israel, Netanyahu dismissed the suggestion, arguing as a substitute that social media was driving the rising opposition.
Netanyahu additionally addressed an ongoing surge in settler violence within the occupied West Bank. Describing the perpetrators as a bunch of 150 “juvenile delinquents,” he acknowledged the difficulty has “blown up beyond belief.” He mentioned the police and army “take actions,” however the courts in Israel “are very lenient” towards these convicted of settler violence. “Our citizens cannot practice violence against anyone,” he mentioned.
Despite Netanyahu’s statements, the West Bank has seen a surge of settler violence – some with situations of Israeli troopers standing idly by – in conjunction with the Israeli authorities quickly increasing settlements all through the territory. In a one-month interval earlier this yr, Israeli human rights group Yesh Din mentioned there have been 305 incidents of settler violence, together with assaults on folks and property and land seizures.