Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth says Israel working with Russia to keep Turkey out of Syria

By Christine Douglass-Williams | Mar5, 2025

By kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0

Yedioth Ahronoth is Israel’s second-largest daily newspaper after Israel Today, and it reports that Israel is working with Russia to keep Turkey out of Syria. With most of the Western world obsessed with Russia and Ukraine, many may be nonplussed by this news. But there are other pressing issues besides Ukraine. For instance, Trump has warned that America “should worry less about Putin and more about migrant gangs, drug lords, murderers,” so that the US doesn’t end up like the European Union.

Turkey is extremely dangerous to Israel. It was responsible for facilitating and backing the jihadist regime that is now governing Syria, and it is virulently opposed to the state of Israel.

Israel has been launching strikes against several weapons sites inside Syria (military installations, facilities, and arsenals), so as to prevent jihad militias from getting their hands on the ammunition. Of course, Arab countries have been condemning Israel for “for violating Syria’s sovereignty and devastating assets belonging to the Arab nation”; not the least of these countries has been Turkey. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has demanded that Israel withdraw from Syria.

Israel needs to keep Turkey out of Syria as a showdown looms.

Erdogan, meanwhile, is aiming for a global caliphate with himself as caliph, and he’ll use any means to achieve this goal.

Turkey facilitated the rise of the Islamic State, which continues to be an ever-present threat in Syria. 10,000 ISIS fighters are jailed inside Syrian detention centers, while tens of thousands more of their jihadi family members are in displaced person camps. This potentially enormous army of jihadists is a grave threat to Israel, to the region and to the world.

Turkey is now also said to have a role as a logistics hub for ISIS-K (Khorasan Province).

Turkey is menacing to Israel, and is now at Israel’s back door via its extensive presence in Syria. It is urgent that Israel do whatever it can to stop Turkey.

Turkey should also be expelled from NATO, but instead EU countries are arming it. Greece has been “fiercely lobbying France” to halt the sale of radar-guided, air-to-air Meteor missiles to Turkey. Yet despite Greece’s concerns, many EU countries are moving ahead with arms sales to Turkey.

Yedioth Ahronoth has also stated that “Israel is actively working against the establishment of Turkish military bases, the training of the Syrian army by Turkish forces, and Türkiye’s role in protecting Syrian airspace.” Israel is exercising foresight, since Turkey was the most formidable force behind the overthrow of al-Assad. Turkey has for a considerable period provided funding, training, and military support to jihadist Syrian opposition groups, including the Syrian National Army (SNA) and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

Netanyahu opposes Türkiye’s presence in Syria: Israeli media,” Hurriyet Daily News, March 3, 2025:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly dispatched his military secretary, Roman Goffman, to Moscow to discuss Russia’s military operations in Syria.

According to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, Goffman aims to strengthen ties with Russia during a series of meetings in Russia’s capital. The report highlights Israel’s preference for maintaining Syria in a “weakened state” and its alignment with Russia over Türkiye, which is described as a “dominant power in the region.”

It argues that Israel “clearly favors Russia over Türkiye” and is seeking measures to reduce Ankara’s influence in Syria.

The report further claims that Israel is actively working against the establishment of Turkish military bases, the training of the Syrian army by Turkish forces, and Türkiye’s role in protecting Syrian airspace.

Additionally, Reuters previously reported that Israel is lobbying the U.S. to support the continued presence of Russian bases in Syria rather than allowing Türkiye to establish a stronger foothold in the region….