In his latest column in Yisrael Hayom, entitled Iran 2.0: The Greatest Threat Of All That Israel Still Hasn’t Recognized, political commentator Amit Segal warned about the “threat from the north.”

The article was published on the same day that Likud Minister Amichai Chikli expressed similar concerns.

“The Israeli embassy in Ankara has been closed and gathering dust since the October 7 massacre, while our consulate in Istanbul opens only rarely, with two brave Israeli diplomats risking their lives to travel there for a few days each month,” Segal wrote.

“Meanwhile, Turkey maintains no fewer than 50 diplomats in Israel: 30 in Tel Aviv and 20 in Jerusalem. Their mission is not to strengthen ties with Israel but to undermine it from within. When Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran about 15 months ago, the Turkish flag at the embassy in Tel Aviv was lowered to half-mast in mourning.

“The ayatollah regime in Tehran has not yet fallen, but one can already see the forecast of the legendary Middle East scholar Bernard Lewis: Iran will become Turkey, and Turkey will become Iran. Thirty-seven percent of Turks view Israel as an existential threat. Last year, Israel was added to Turkey’s famous ‘Red Book’ of national security threats.

“Is Israel aware of the danger? Absolutely. Is it doing enough to counter it? Not nearly enough.

“As one Israeli expert explained: Turkey accuses Israel of exactly what it itself seeks to achieve. When Erdogan claims that Netanyahu seeks a ‘Greater Israel,’ it’s because Turkey itself has not abandoned its own dream of imperial expansion. When Turkey accuses Israel of genocide, it comes from a country that committed a monstrous genocide, second only to the Holocaust.

“Israel clashes with Turkey in Syria yet fails to grasp the magnitude of the threat. Erdogan aspires to be Khan, Caliph, and Emperor all at once: Khan of all Turkic peoples (most of the ‘-stan’ countries), Emperor of the Balkan nations once ruled by the Ottoman Empire, and Caliph of the entire Muslim world. That’s why Turkey builds military bases in Sri Lanka, supplies air defense systems to Bangladesh, and assists Pakistan against India.

“Israel remains a thorn in Turkey’s side. There was a brief thaw in relations in 2023, culminating in a meeting between Netanyahu and Erdogan just before October 7. At the time, the President’s Residence referred to the Turkish ruler as ‘Erdogan, Don’t Answer.’ Back then, he was under pressure from a hostile Democratic administration in Washington. Now he’s a close ally of Trump, and if another Democratic administration takes power, Israel will not find an open door. The antisemitic genie won’t be returning to its bottle anytime soon.

“Israel has options: closing the Turkish cultural institute in East Jerusalem, a hub of incitement in and of itself; reducing the size of the Turkish diplomatic mission; fighting relentlessly against any Turkish presence in Gaza; and cooperating with India against the shared threat from Ankara.

“But this is a danger no less serious and far more complex than the Iranian one. After the assassination in Doha, a senior American official told his Israeli counterpart, ‘You know they’re NATO members—if you’d attacked Istanbul, we’d have been obligated to defend them.’ He pretended to be joking, but his Israeli interlocutor didn’t laugh.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)