^{Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan addresses the parliament to mark the opening of the new legislative year at the General Assembly of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM) in Ankara, Oct. 1, 2024. Photo by Serdar Ozsoy/Getty Images.key-and-future-threats}

By Shmuel Katz and Chaim Silberstein

While Israel and the world’s attention is focused on the highly complicated and flawed negotiations between the United States and Iran, another enemy is advancing its own interests in the region, encroaching on Israel’s sovereignty, and seeking to establish itself as a regional hegemon. That enemy is Turkey under its ruthless president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Israelis remember Turkey as the Muslim state that established close friendship and full diplomatic relations with Israel almost from its inception, giving hope that other Muslim countries would follow its lead.

Since the rise to power of one of the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, Erdoğan, almost 25 years ago, Turkey’s relations with Israel have ranged from chilly to openly hostile. It is important to understand Erdoğan’s plans for the Middle East and what Israel can do to thwart his ambitions, for the benefit of both Israel and the free world.

Erdoğan is a radical Islamist leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, an anti-Israel and anti-Western movement designated as a terrorist organization by Texas and Florida, though not by the U.S. federal government. It opposes the Jewish national presence in the Middle East and seeks to spread Islam, including Sharia law, throughout the world, especially in the United States.

To that end, the Muslim Brotherhood, its affiliates and supporters have spent billions of dollars infiltrating American society, including schools, universities, and cultural institutions. Their success is reflected in the steep rise of antisemitism, the decline in public support for Israel and the United States, and the growing acceptance of radical anti-Western ideas.

This strategy is based on a long-term plan for a “civilization jihad,” uncovered by the FBI during a 2004 raid in Virginia and introduced as evidence during the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing trial.

It outlines a multi-phase effort to embed Islamic organizations within North American civil society. This is not merely a theoretical vision but a battle plan for cultural, religious and civilizational jihad, implemented steadily and, if peaceful means fail, they may potentially also use force.

Erdoğan is among the most dangerous leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood. He seeks to restore the territories once ruled by the Ottoman Empire and eventually expand beyond them. With Iran weakened, he sees an opportunity to fill the regional vacuum.

Unfortunately, U.S. President Donald Trump believes he enjoys a good relationship with Erdoğan and has even considered providing Turkey with highly advanced weapons systems. While he may believe this serves American interests, Erdoğan is exploiting this relationship to advance his own agenda at the expense of the United States, Israel and the free world.

The Muslim Brotherhood, through organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah, embeds itself within communities by providing social services, economic assistance, and cultural programs while spreading radical Islamist ideology. This is how Hamas gained control of Gaza and Hezbollah entrenched itself in Lebanon. Erdoğan is following the same playbook in Jerusalem.

Turkey has established numerous organizations in Jerusalem that provide financial assistance, sponsor sports clubs and cultural activities, preserve Turkish heritage, and engage in anti-Israel activism.

Many operate under the guidance of Turkey’s Consulate in Jerusalem, which Ankara regards as its “Embassy to Palestine.” Israel has tolerated these activities for too long, apparently in an effort to avoid confrontation.

Erdoğan has become increasingly aggressive, openly speaking about gaining control over Jerusalem. Israel cannot afford to ignore this strategy.

Following Hamas’s brutal Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, Erdoğan intensified his hostile rhetoric against Israel and Zionism. He has falsely accused Israel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of behaving like Nazis, committing genocide, and threatening Turkey itself.

Such accusations are intended to delegitimize and demonize the Jewish state while preparing international opinion for its eventual elimination. Yet these statements have received little condemnation, even from Israel’s closest allies, including the United States.

The free world must recognize that Israel is only the first target. Radical Islam first attacks the “Little Satan"—Israel—and then turns against the “Great Satan"—the United States. Europe is already experiencing rising Islamist influence, accompanied by growing antisemitism, anti-Americanism, and hostility toward the values of the free world. Erdoğan dreams of restoring the Ottoman Empire, with Israel occupying a central place in that vision.

To achieve this goal, Turkey is helping build a new axis consisting of Turkey, Qatar, Syria, Pakistan, Somalia, Gaza, and perhaps Egypt. Like Iran’s regional strategy, this alliance seeks to encircle Israel, deprive it of its strategic and spiritual lifelines, and ultimately bring about its destruction.

All who cherish freedom, Judeo-Christian values, and human decency must expose, marginalize, and defeat the dangerous agenda of radical Islamists. We must prevent hostile ideological and political incursions into the United States, Europe, Israel, and especially Jerusalem.

Israel and the United States have demonstrated the value of close cooperation in confronting Iran and its proxies. That partnership must now expand to expose, combat, and defeat Erdoğan’s Muslim Brotherhood-inspired campaign through sound education, effective legislation, and strategic cooperation.

People throughout the free world must understand that their own security and freedom are at stake. The sooner democratic societies recognize the danger, educate future generations, and respond wisely, the better the prospects for preserving liberty.

Providing Turkey under Erdoğan with highly advanced military equipment would endanger not only Israel but also the Middle East and Europe. Erdoğan’s actions against the Kurds and in Syria, together with his ambitions toward Israel and Europe, demonstrate the risks of strengthening his regime.

Let us hope that freedom-loving people succeed in defeating this campaign of cultural terror in Jerusalem, mainland Europe, and the United States, as well as in Cyprus, Greece and among the Kurds. We urgently need to rid our societies of this growing threat before it is too late.

Source: JNS