Jonathan Pollard, the Israeli-American intelligence operative who spent 30 years in a U.S. federal prison for selling classified secrets to Israel, has openly declared that the Jewish state should prepare for war against Turkey and Egypt following its military campaign against Iran. His remarks, delivered on an Arutz Sheva podcast, are the latest in a growing pattern of Israeli figures issuing direct threats toward Ankara.
“I’m not so sure that we will have as easy a time with the Turks as we’ve had with the Iranians,” Pollard said. “We have to be prepared for the next war, which will probably be against Turkey and Egypt. The storm is coming.” He also warned against allowing the Turkish-backed transitional government in Syria to reclaim Israeli-occupied areas in the country’s south, arguing it would effectively place “the Turks on our border.”
This is far from the first time Israeli officials and public figures have pointed their rhetoric at Ankara. Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett recently described Turkey as potentially the “next Iran” — a framing that analysts say is part of a deliberate effort to cast Ankara as an existential threat. Israeli Culture Minister Amichai Eliyahu has called for Turkey to be formally designated an “enemy state.”
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan pushed back sharply last week, saying Israel was manufacturing a new adversary now that its war on Iran had entered a new phase. “After Iran, Israel cannot live without hostility,” Fidan said in an interview with Anadolu Agency, accusing Tel Aviv of building a rhetorical case to justify future aggression — a trend he said extended beyond Netanyahu’s inner circle to figures across the Israeli political spectrum.
The backdrop to this escalating war of words is a relationship that has deteriorated dramatically since the 2010 Mavi Marmara incident, when Israeli forces raided a Turkish humanitarian flotilla bound for Gaza, killing 10 people on board. Turkey was the first Muslim-majority country to recognize the State of Israel in 1949, and the two nations maintained strong security and trade ties for decades. That era now appears definitively over.
Tensions reached a new flashpoint on April 7, 2026, when three armed attackers struck the Israeli Consulate General in Istanbul. One attacker was killed, two others were wounded, and two Turkish police officers sustained injuries. Both governments condemned the assault as a terrorist act.
According to former Israeli Ambassador Alon Pinkas, the timing of the current campaign against Turkey is not surprising. “Politicians like Netanyahu and Bennett rely on the perpetual threat of war,” he told Al Jazeera. Analysts across the region note that since October 7, 2023, Israel has conducted military operations in Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, and Iran — and that the search for the “next enemy” has become a structural feature of Israeli political discourse.
Pollard himself said he “hoped” war with Turkey and Egypt would not come — but added grimly that “hope was the last demon out of Pandora’s Box.”
Ankara has not yet issued a formal response to Pollard’s remarks, but Turkish officials have made clear in recent months that they view Israel’s escalating threats not as fringe commentary, but as a coordinated signal of intent.
