Just hours after President Donald Trump said he’s considering selling F-35 stealth fighter jets to Turkey, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke against the potential move, even as he downplayed divisions between the two world leaders.
In an interview with CNN, Netanyahu warned that the sale of America’s most advanced fighter aircraft “doesn’t make Turkey a friendly state to the United States.” In part of an escalating dispute with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Netanyahu described Ankara as “a regime that’s infected with the Muslim Brotherhood, which hates the United States.”
“He’s not exactly a model ally of the United States,” Netanyahu told CNN’s Dana Bash. “He threatens to destroy my country, the one and only Jewish state.”
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in an interview with CNN Turk last week that Israel has “become a burden that humanity can no longer bear,” prompting Israel’s foreign minister to condemn the remarks as “textbook incitement to genocide.”
“This is not a force for peace and stability. When you give them that power, you’re going to see aggression in its wake,” Netanyahu said.
