The United States should not provide Turkey with F-35 fighter jets or advanced fighter engines, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday, warning that such a move would upset the regional balance of power and threaten Israeli air superiority in the Middle East.
Speaking on Fox & Friends, he said Turkey is “a great country” but is governed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom he accused of calling for Israel’s annihilation, occupying part of Cyprus, threatening Greece, backing Hamas, and allowing the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood to shape Turkish policy.
The balance of power in the Middle East is ultimately protected by Israel’s air superiority and America’s posture in the region, Netanyahu said.
His warning came as US President Donald Trump heads to Ankara for this week’s NATO summit, where Erdogan is expected to press for renewed access to the F-35 program and relief from US sanctions. Turkey was removed from the F-35 program in 2019 after buying Russia’s S-400 air-defense system, which Washington said could compromise the aircraft’s stealth technology.
Erdogan’s record gives Israel reason to be alarmed
Erdogan’s record gives Israel every reason to be alarmed. Since the October 7 massacre, he has called Hamas “a liberation group,” said Israel is a “terror state,” compared Netanyahu to Hitler, and said Turkey could “enter Israel” as it had entered Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh. In March 2025, during Eid al-Fitr remarks, he prayed that “Zionist Israel” be “destroyed and devastated.”
This is not normal diplomatic criticism. It is the language of a leader who sees the Jewish state as an enemy to be defeated, humiliated, and ultimately removed.
Israel has heard this kind of language before. Iran has spent decades promising a world without Israel. Erdogan’s Turkey is not Iran, but when a NATO leader publicly prays for Israel’s destruction and supports Hamas after the October 7 massacre, Israelis are right to take him literally.
Trump should tell Erdogan today that the F-35 is off the table.
Trump and Erdogan may have a working relationship, but this is not a question of personal chemistry between leaders. Washington and Ankara may have areas where they can cooperate. Turkey remains strategically important: It sits between Europe, Russia, the Black Sea, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean. It has a large army and real influence.
None of that justifies handing Erdogan America’s most advanced fighter jet.
The F-35 is a strategic platform. It would give Turkey stealth, reach, intelligence-gathering capacity, and a place inside a military ecosystem built on trust. That trust was broken when Ankara chose the Russian S-400. It was broken again by Erdogan’s embrace of Hamas, his threats against Israel, and his use of anti-Israel incitement as a pillar of his regional identity.
Supporters of a deal will argue that bringing Turkey back into the F-35 program could pull Ankara closer to the West. That argument ignores Erdogan’s behavior. He has repeatedly taken what the West offers and used it to expand his room for maneuver. He trades with Moscow, pressures NATO allies, threatens Greece and Cyprus, courts Islamist movements, and then asks Washington for another prize.
Rewarding this pattern would be a serious mistake.
Israeli air superiority is a necessity, not a luxury
For Israel, the issue is existential. Israeli air superiority is not a luxury. It is how a small country surrounded by threats prevents wider war. It allows Israel to strike Iranian weapons convoys, deter Hezbollah, monitor Syria, defend its skies, and keep hostile armies from believing they can change the map by force. Weakening that edge would invite adventurism.
The danger reaches beyond Israel. Greece, Cyprus, moderate Arab states, and pro-Western forces across the region would read an F-35 sale as a sign that Washington is willing to ignore aggression when Erdogan applies enough pressure. Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah would read it as another crack in American seriousness.
Trump has an opportunity to show responsibility. He can tell Erdogan that Turkey’s path back to deeper defense cooperation runs through real changes: The S-400 problem must be resolved, Hamas support must end, threats against Israel must stop, and Turkey must behave like a NATO ally rather than an Islamist power playing both sides.
Until then, no F-35s.