Is America’s Ambassador Too Close to Turkey?

Growing tensions between Israel and Turkey are reminiscent of the 2010 Mavi Marmara clash. Washington is attempting to mediate between our allies following a Tuesday incident that Ankara claims could have led to aerial dogfights over Syrian territory. Mediation is fine, but we hope that if push comes to shove President Trump will side with America’s steadfast ally, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, over a fickle president of Turkey, Recep Erdogan.At issue are Turkey’s growing efforts to deepen its hold over Syria. Jerusalem is concerned that Mr. Erdogan’s Islamist regime could create a military presence next door to the Jewish state. On Monday Turkish contractors reportedly arrived at Syria’s Abu al-Duhur military airbase to help rebuild it. A day later Israeli jets struck the base’s runway and adjacent warehouses. “We made our message clear: Don’t,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a statement. “We will not allow hostile forces to establish themselves on our borders,” Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, said on Wednesday while touring south Syria. He needed no interpreter: Ankara’s hostility to Israel and its attempt to swallow Syria whole are hard to miss. Mr. Erdogan’s hostility has only grown since the Mavi Marmara incident, when the IDF stopped a Turkish Islamist group as it tried to breach Israel’s waters. Mr. Erdogan, who hosts Hamas leaders in his country, is sharpening his anti-Israel rhetoric almost daily. Jerusalem has made clear to the regime of President Ahmed al-Sharaa that it would oppose any Turkish military incursion into Syria. As Reuters reported Wednesday, Mossad’s chief, Roman Gofman, held a rare phone call last week with Syria’s foreign minister, Asaad al-Shaiban, to discuss Turkey’s presence in Syria.Mr. Erdogan has helped Mr. al-Sharaa, a former Al Qaeda commander in Syria, to overthrow the Damascus butcher, Bashar Assad. Ankara now sees Syria as a lynchpin of its attempt to lead the Sunni Islamist world, including by dominating the Levant and beyond. A NATO member, Turkey is also now in a defense pact with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, named after Mecca, Islam’s holiest site. Is Mr. Erdogan, then, America’s ally?One person who clearly thinks so is our ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, who condemned the Israeli strike on Tuesday before anyone at Washington had time to assess the situation. In several interviews with Israeli television stations today, Mr. Barrack ominously claimed that as Turkey wasn’t notified of the strike, its jets were about to confront the Israelis. Yet Ankara denied any presence at the Syrian airport, so why did it need to be notified?Mr. Barrack, who relies on friendship with Mr. Trump, sees himself as America’s über-diplomat in Syria, Lebanon, and beyond. As Turkey watcher Sinan Ciddi tells our Benny Avni, though, Mr. Barrack is “his own man,” who often works independently of the Department of State. The American ambassador’s agenda, meanwhile, tracks closely with Ankara’s, which explains Mr. Barrack’s immediate condemnation of Israel’s Tuesday strike. We are encouraged that in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12, Mr. Trump declined to similarly criticize the same strike. America agrees with Israeli intelligence of a Turkish military buildup in Syria, per Channel 12. One way to bolster Syria’s independence from Turkey is to name an American ambassador to Damascus, rather than rely on an “envoy,” Mr. Barrack. He seems like Mr. Erdogan’s man at Washington, rather than the other way around.

Is America’s Ambassador Too Close to Turkey?

Is America’s Ambassador Too Close to Turkey?

More from the New York Sun

Jeanie Buss Ready To Fight Siblings Over Lakers Sale to Kushner, Iger Group

Rising Bond Yields From Trumpian Growth, Not Trumpian Inflation

Racing Car Designer Gordon Murray Has Exactly One Idea

France: The Sixth Republic?

A Cloud in the Sunshine State

South Carolina Senate Runoff Turns Ugly After Graham Says She’s Not ‘Informed’ on National Security, Accused of Nepotism by Opponent

Top Fauci Adviser Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy To Hide COVID Records From Public

Russian Bot Farms Blamed for Interference in Alberta’s Secession Debate

More from the New York Sun

Jeanie Buss Ready To Fight Siblings Over Lakers Sale to Kushner, Iger Group

Rising Bond Yields From Trumpian Growth, Not Trumpian Inflation

Racing Car Designer Gordon Murray Has Exactly One Idea

France: The Sixth Republic?

A Cloud in the Sunshine State

South Carolina Senate Runoff Turns Ugly After Graham Says She’s Not ‘Informed’ on National Security, Accused of Nepotism by Opponent

Top Fauci Adviser Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy To Hide COVID Records From Public

Russian Bot Farms Blamed for Interference in Alberta’s Secession Debate