Stability Requires Saying No to Erdoğan
The idea that Turkey should play an active role in stabilizing Gaza is not a bold diplomatic stroke. It is an act of strategic self-deception—one that exposes a dangerous contradiction at the heart of Donald Trump’s Middle East instincts.
President Trump has been, by any fair measure, a great friend of Israel. But friendship does not excuse blindness. And nowhere is that blindness more apparent than in his repeated praise of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as a “great leader,” including when those words were spoken directly in front of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—the elected leader of America’s closest ally in the region.
Calling Erdoğan a great leader is not merely tactless. It is profoundly ignorant of who Erdoğan is, what he represents, and how central hostility toward Israel and indulgence of Islamist extremism have become to his rule.
Turkey Is Not a Stabilizer—It Is an Enabler
Stabilizing Gaza requires dismantling the ideological and military ecosystem that sustains Hamas. Turkey has spent the last decade doing the opposite. Erdoğan’s government hosts Hamas officials, defends the organization internationally, and portrays it as a legitimate resistance movement rather than a terrorist entity. This is not nuance; it is alignment.
A country that legitimizes Hamas cannot be entrusted with Gaza’s future. Period.
The fantasy that Turkey could somehow pivot from ideological patron to neutral stabilizer reflects a basic failure to understand the nature of Islamist movements—and the regimes that cultivate them.
Erdoğan’s Track Record Is Chaos, Not Calm
If Turkey were capable of exporting stability, there would be evidence of it somewhere. There is none. From Syria to Libya, from the Eastern Mediterranean to the Caucasus, Ankara’s interventions have fueled conflict, entrenched militias, and advanced neo-Ottoman ambitions under the guise of diplomacy.
Gaza does not need another regional power seeking influence, symbolism, and leverage. It needs demilitarization, enforced governance, and the systematic dismantling of terror infrastructure. Turkey brings none of these tools. What it brings is ideology, grievance, and spectacle.
To confuse Erdoğan’s rhetorical passion with constructive capacity is not realism. It is naïveté masquerading as confidence.
Arrogance Dressed Up as Instinct
Trump prides himself on his ability to “read” leaders. But the Middle East is not a boardroom, and Erdoğan is not a misunderstood executive. He is an authoritarian who jails journalists, dismantles democratic institutions, and uses anti-Israel incitement as political currency.
Praising such a figure—especially in front of Israel’s prime minister—is not savvy diplomacy. It signals to allies that their security concerns are secondary to Trump’s personal impressions. It signals to adversaries that theatrical bravado is enough to earn legitimacy.
This is not loyalty to Israel. It is arrogance that assumes good intentions can substitute for strategic understanding.
The Cost of Indulgence
Worse still, elevating Turkey marginalizes actors who actually understand what stabilization entails. Egypt, Jordan, and pragmatic Gulf states know that Islamist radicalization is not managed with speeches or symbolism, but with discipline, enforcement, and sustained pressure. They have paid the price of indulgence before and are unwilling to repeat the mistake.
Empowering Turkey would undermine these partners while emboldening rejectionist forces in Gaza—those who thrive on international confusion and ideological permissiveness.
Friendship Requires Clarity, Not Flattery
Gaza’s future will not be secured by compliments to strongmen or faith in personal chemistry. It will be secured by sober, unromantic decisions about who can be trusted to suppress violence rather than excuse it.
Donald Trump’s friendship with Israel is real. Precisely for that reason, it demands clarity. Praising Erdoğan while proposing Turkey as a stabilizing force in Gaza is not pragmatism. It is a profound misreading of the region—and one Israel, and the United States, cannot afford.
Turkey is not the solution to Gaza’s chaos. It is part of the problem. And pretending otherwise does not make it so.