U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack has a number of strange observations about Israel’s strike on the Abu al-Duhur military base and more: “Israel ‘baited’ Turkey with Abu al-Duhur airbase ‘pre-election’ strike, US Envoy Tom Barrack says,” by Idan Kweller, Jerusalem Post, August 22, 2026:
According to Barrack, US President Donald Trump recently asked Erdogan why Turkey did not simply “take” Syria for itself, given the role it played in developments there.
According to Barrack, Erdogan responded: “Because we don’t want it. We want Syria to be a sovereign and independent country.”
More nonsense from Erdogan. He just doesn’t want, right now, to be in a war with Israel. Any Turkish attempt to take over Syria would be met by a withering attack from Israel. Erdogan has already established several military bases in Syria, both in order to whittle away at Israel’s control of the skies over Syria, and to prepare for a future attack on Israel.
Barrack also addressed mutual concerns over territorial ambitions. According to him, maps are published in Turkey showing what is allegedly a vision of “Greater Israel,” while in Israel, maps appear warning of “Ottoman Empire 2.0.”
“We don’t think any of those things are true,” he said.
Arab and Turkish fear of a “Greater Israel” extending “from the Nile to the Euphrates” is pure fantasy. Israel gave up all of the Sinai—-“from the Nile” — to Egypt in 1979 in return for a peace treaty. Israel has no claim on any land east of the Jordan River (“to the Euphrates”). It does want, and will never surrender, Judea and Samaria, territories that Jews have lived in for 3500 years, and where Jewish history was largely made.
Despite the severe crisis, Barrack revealed that behind the scenes there is also security cooperation between Turkey, Israel, and Syria over a shared threat.
“Every evening… we have coordination between Turkey, Israel, and Syria, hunting ISIS terrorists,” he said….
All three countries are hunting down ISIS terrorists, but there is no coordination between them. In fact, Turkey appears more determined to suppress the Kurds in Syria, despite their having been the most effective fighters against ISIS in the region.
Barrack recalled that in the early 2000s, Israel and Turkey enjoyed a period of “honeymoon” relations and hoped the two countries could eventually return to a similar relationship….
As long as Erdogan is in power, there will be no return to the good relations that Israel once had with Turkey, in the days when the Kemalists were still in power. As the years pass, Erdogan becomes ever more virulent in his hatred of Israel and “the Jews.” And the Turkish population has come along with him.
“The response of US envoy Barrack is full of inaccuracies and positions that contradict Trump’s own position regarding the Golan Heights.”
Trump long ago accepted unconditionally Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights. Barrack, on the other hand, talks as if the Golan could still be a matter for future negotiation. It can’t. No Israeli government would ever agree to surrendering the Golan.
Katz also claimed that the IDF issued a direct warning to senior Syrian officials before strikes on the Abu al-Duhur airfield “in an attempt to prevent the move.”
That warning was conveyed, repeatedly, in the two-hour discussion Mossad’s Gofman had with Syria’s Foreign Minister, Shailani. The hope was that the Syrians could prevail on Turkey not to move men and materiel into the Al-Duhur airbase, obviating the necessity for an Israeli attack. It seems that the Syrians, knowing how impossible that task would be, did not even try.
Tom Barrack, the American ambassador to Turkey and the special envoy to Syria, has shown his true colors. He finds nothing to criticize about Turkey’s behavior in trying to take over the Syrian airbase for its own purposes. He saves his scathing criticism for Israel, which he claims acted on faulty intelligence, and was likely trying, by bombing so close to the Turkish border, to provoke a Turkish response, thereby setting off a major war. It’s preposterous. Why would Israel, its hands full with a four-front war against Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iran, want to bring upon itself a war with Turkey, which has the largest standing army in Europe and the Middle East?
John1 says
The Crusaders held territory in the holy land for almost 200 years. The Muslims never quit trying to kill them all, and eventually drove them to the grave, or to evacuate. Israel has only existed for 80 years, and Muslim memories are 1400 years old. Israel must maintain military superiority over the region, because the Muslims will never give up trying to drive them out.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
It’s ironic that after coming to power in Damascus w/ Erdogan’s support, the HTS regime can now be independent of Ankara b’cos of the country that they are sworn to loathe – Israel. It’s sorta enviable when you have an enemy on your borders that wants to keep foreign troops out of your territory completely
I saw an X post from Laura Loomer claiming that Tom Barack has been recalled to Washington for “consultations”. But it’s probably b’cos the State Department took a dime view of his Mario Nawfal interview, where he claimed, among other things, that Golan is a part of Syria. When US policy – since 2019 and not reversed by Biden – has been to recognize Golan as a Israeli territory
GE says
Trump asked Erdogan why Turkey didn’t take Syria for itself? Are you kidding me? He cannot be serious–
I just read that–and now my eyes are bleeding.
What is Trump’s fascination with Erdogan the snake?