Tom Barrack Accuses Israel of ‘Baiting’ Turkey and Risking ‘World War IIl’

Arab-American Tom Barrack is our ambassador to Turkey, and special envoy to Syria as well. Barrack has fallen hard for Ahmed al-Sharaa’s charade of being a “moderate” who wants to make “peace” with Israel. Barrack also seems as impressed as his boss with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the padishah who rules Turkey and nurses his neo-Ottoman designs. In the last decade, Erdogan has established Turkish military bases in Syria, northern Iraq, Somalia, Libya, and Chad, and continues to maintain the largest Turkish military base abroad, in Northern Cyprus. Turkey has a larger military presence abroad than any other country, except for the United States.

Barrack has had a lot to say about the Israeli strike on the Abu al-Duhur military base; a full report on what he has said can be found here: “Israel ‘baited’ Turkey with Abu al-Duhur airbase ‘pre-election’ strike, US Envoy Tom Barrack says,” by Idan Kweller, Jerusalem Post, August 22, 2026:

The Israeli strike on the Abu al-Duhur military base in Syria on Tuesday, which nearly led to a direct military confrontation with Turkey, may have been intended to provoke Ankara and could have been linked to political considerations ahead of Israel’s elections, US Special Envoy to Syria and Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack suggested on Saturday.

This is an outrageous charge. For making it, Barrack ought to be replaced at once. In saying that the strike on al-Duhur could have been intended to “provoke Ankara,” he is denying Israel’s justified alarm — which it shared in advance both with Washington, and with Syria’s foreign minister — and accusing the Israelis of trying to start a war with Turkey.

In an interview with Mario Nawfal on X/Twitter, Barrack stressed that this was only one possible theory, not an intelligence-based conclusion….

It’s the kind of theory that only someone with malice toward Israel could possibly suggest.

“Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu is moving toward October,” Barrack noted. “He knows what his constituency wants.”…

This claim by Barrack, about Netanyahu ordering the bombing of the Al-Duhur airbase in order to win votes in the fall, is absurd. Here is the timeline: the Israelis had recently learned that the Turks were just about to install radar at the airbase, and to deploy hundreds of troops. They had to act before that happened, because once the radar was working, and a sizable Turkish contingent was present, it would be much more dangerous for Israeli pilots to attack the airbase. That information is what determined the timing of their attack, and not the election in October. Barrack appears intent on defaming Benjamin Netanyahu, painting him as willing to risk a war with Turkey in order to shore up his electoral support.

Barrack also presented a second theory regarding the circumstances that led to the strike: that Israel received intelligence indicating Turkish military personnel or military assets could be stationed at the Syrian base.

That is not, pace Barack, merely a “theory.” The planned Turkish move into Al-Duhur was not imaginary; it constituted a serious threat to Israel’s freedom over the skies of Syria. Israel promptly shared its alarm with Washington, about a week before the attack. The Israelis were likely hoping that the Americans could talk some sense into Erdogan, not to deploy his troops or move his radar to the airbase in Syria, in order precisely to avoid the need for the IAF to attack. However, the Americans dismissed Israeli fears; our intelligence operatives did not agree that such a Turkish move was in the works. Fortunately, the Israelis listened to their own intelligence from Mossad, and acted, with pinpoint bombing both on Al-Duhur’s runways and on its weapons warehouses.

What’s more, on August 14, the Mossad director Roman Gofman spoke for two hours with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani to question him about Turkey’s increasing military presence and activities in Syria, including arms sales and drone provisions to the Syrian army, as well as the Turkish takeover of Syrian airbases. Al-Shaibani denied any knowledge of such takeovers; that meant that Syria would not try to talk Turkey out of such takeovers. At that point, Israel realized it could not wait any longer; it had to attack Al-Duhur airbase before the Turkish military took it over.