Peloni: By expanding the capabilities of a empire building Erdogan, Trump threatens the very stability which is necessary for him to pivot towards Asia. Stability, can not come from increasing the means by which such would be Empire builders can expand their reach, threaten their enemies, and make such threats a reality.
by Con Coughlin • Gatestone Institute • July 19, 2026
US President Donald Trump’s willingness to even consider lifting the F-35 ban is being seen in the context of his charm offensive to forge closer ties with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an initiative the American leader has undertaken despite the Turkish leader’s well-documented support for radical Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. Pictured: President Donald Trump meets with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after a dinner with NATO Summit leaders at the Huis ten Bosch Palace in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, June 24, 2025. (Photo by The White House – Flickr, Public Domain, Wikipedia)
- Trump’s willingness to even consider lifting the F-35 ban is being seen in the context of his charm offensive to forge closer ties with Erdogan, an initiative the American leader has undertaken despite the Turkish leader’s well-documented support for radical Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.
- Erdogan also seems to have initiated a charm offensive, most likely with at least a partial view to prying loose those F-35s.
- According to the report published by Israel’s i24News, Kurdish militias were preparing to launch an attack on Iran with the aim of instigating a nationwide rebellion against the ayatollahs’ tyrannical rule when the US halted the operation due to pressure from Erdogan.
- Apart from Erdogan’s long-held support for the Islamist ideology espoused by the expansionist Muslim Brotherhood and its allies, the Turkish leader has also been accused of actively thwarting the Trump administration’s attempts to disarm Hamas terrorists in Gaza as part of its peace initiative in the enclave.
- Efforts to pressure Hamas’s terrorist leadership into fulfilling its disarmament obligations have, though, been stymied by the interventions of Turkey and Qatar, the Gulf state that also supports a variety of Islamist groups, which have actively used their influence to delay the disarmament process.
- Turkey’s obstructive approach to the disarmament issue in Gaza follows a series of public statements in which Erdogan has explicitly stated that he regards Israel as a potential enemy, and that the two countries could soon find themselves involved in a direct military confrontation. With Turkey desperately jockeying to replace Iran as the region’s dominant power, such a prospect cannot be dismissed lightly.
US President Donald Trump must abandon his plans to sell Turkey highly sophisticated F-35 stealth fighters because of the deeply duplicitous conduct Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan displayed during efforts to end hostilities between the US and Iran.
Trump’s willingness to even consider lifting the F-35 ban is being seen in the context of his charm offensive to forge closer ties with Erdogan, an initiative the American leader has undertaken despite the Turkish leader’s well-documented support for radical Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.
Trump’s courtship of Erdogan, moreover, is continuing despite concerns being raised about Turkey’s duplicitous involvement in peace talks to end the Iran war. While, in public, Ankara has said its main objective is to end hostilities in the Gulf, it has also been working quietly behind the scenes to provide support for the beleaguered ayatollahs.
It is obviously not a good idea to sell the F35 to Turkiye and Trump himself has been optimistic about the sale but non-committal about completing the transaction.
We are all concerned about Erdogan’s insistence on various subjects such as “assisting the Board of Peace” in the Gaza Strip, acquiring F35 aircraft or joining the EU. While everybody except Trump seems to expressly deny those wishes, he simply continues to try, try, try again.
Some points are obvious. He convinced Trump not to arm the Kurds who would want a chunk of Turkiye, Syria, Iraq and Iran and maybe a few square miles of real estate nearby to create their very own Kurdistan. They would be willing partners in defeating the IRGC and cooling Erdogan down to a reasonable temperature.
The EU have denied all attempts to allow Turkiye to join them for obvious reasons. They would flood the EU with Turks alongside all the “refugees” they have already sent into the EU from Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and more, the target being to make Europe Islamic.
Erdogan’s attempts to get a beachhead in Gaza would simply provide the terror organizations with a ready flow of all the arms and munitions they need to repeat 10/7 with the helpful aid of Turkish troops who would be protecting the Gazans from those genocidal Jews.
Selling the F35s to Turkiye would give them much more than a weapon to use against the IAF. It would provide the means to supply Russia, China, North Korea and Iran with lots of useful intelligence about this platform and its capabilities, not to speak of shooting them down. It would also provide them with prominence in the Arab world, which is what they want more than anything else. On the other hand, claiming that they have not even unpacked the S400 units is somehow beyond belief.
As mentioned above, the Arab world has already accumulated 4 centuries of Turkish dominance and they have no inner compulsion to repeat the experience.
Certainly, Israel has no compulsion towards this kind of situation either. The Arabs in Israel, including Judea. Samaria and Gaza, should not be under any illusion that they would be able to independently form their own “Free Palestine” under Turkish subversion. That would never happen and by now, even the most Jihadi Palestinian must have learned that lesson in 1948 and since.