The messages reduced against Turkey - and Erdogan's threat to Greece: "You will hear our message"

A senior political source addressed today (Wednesday) the growing tension with Turkey, and clarified that in Israel's view, Turkey is not an enemy, but only a rival state. "It is not an enemy state, but it is definitely a rival. It has taken against us steps in the economic, legal, and diplomatic fields," said the source, who also noted that while in the past there were stages where messages were passed between the sides via Azerbaijan — an ally of both Israel and Turkey — "I would say that this is happening less recently."

When asked about reports of increased activity by the Turkish Navy in areas adjacent to those where the Israeli Navy operates in the Mediterranean, and whether there were frictions between the sides, he emphasized: "I don't think anyone has a desire to reach an exchange of fire, neither the Turks nor us." The tension with Turkey, let us recall, is currently at its peak against the backdrop of the Israeli attack last month at the Abu al-Duhur military airport, in the Idlib area in northern Syria and not far from the Turkish border, which, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was intended to thwart a Turkish attempt to establish itself at that base. In Ankara, they denied these claims, and the attack sparked global concern over a possible collision course between the countries, whose tension has been growing for years, especially since the war in Gaza, in which Erdogan effectively mobilized to help Hamas and hurled harsh accusations at the Netanyahu government, whom he called, among other things, "Hitler" — and just last week also asked Interpol to issue a "red notice" against the Prime Minister.

In the shadow of this tension, Israel is turning to strengthen its alliance with Greece and Cyprus — both are rivals of Turkey who also fear its military buildup — and last Monday the Ministry of Defense announced the completion of the huge deal known as "Achilles Shield," in which the Greek Ministry of Defense signed for the purchase of a multi-layered air defense array of Israeli systems — including "David's Sling" and "Spyder" produced by Rafael, and the BARAK MX system of Israel Aerospace Industries. According to the announcement, the value of the move is about 3.1 billion euros, and it is the largest defense export deal with Greece, and one of the largest ever in the history of the State of Israel.

According to the Ministry of Defense, this is the first time it has provided another country with a complete defense array against a variety of threats — from ballistic missiles and air attacks to hostile unmanned aerial vehicles. Among other things, it was reported, the deal also includes multi-mission MMR radars for air control produced by Israel Aerospace Industries, and a new national command and control system, which will centralize all air defense capabilities and will be developed under the leadership of Rafael. Although there is not necessarily a connection to this deal, it is very reasonable to assume that it is not perceived in a positive light in Ankara — and today Erdogan sent a threatening message to the government in Athens, according to him due to its insistence on "arming" Greek islands that are close to the Turkish coast.

In a conversation with reporters on his plane, on the way back from an international summit in Kyrgyzstan, Erdogan was asked about that alleged arming of the islands, and according to the Turkish newspaper "Hurriyet" replied: "What should we do? What is our responsibility? To do what is required. We say that we want to conduct ourselves with Greece on the basis of good neighborly relations. If we wanted to send a message from the Turkish mainland, from Kas, to Greece — they would hear it, wouldn't they?", he said, referring to the city located a few kilometers from the small Greek island of Kastellorizo, in the southern Aegean Sea.

Erdogan added: "We were the constructive side, however in most cases we did not see a reciprocal response to our good intentions. Greece must understand the following: Turkey has no intentions regarding the territory of any country, but it will not allow anyone to harm its own rights. Ignoring international agreements and violating them will not help anyone. Whoever interprets Turkey's restrained and logical approach as weakness — I say this openly — is making a serious mistake. Greece must retreat from this wrong path and give up arming their islands that have a non-military status. History is a very good guide for those who learn from it. We will continue to act for peace, security, and stability in our region."

Meanwhile, in a conversation with ynet, the senior political source addressed several other issues on the agenda, and among other things addressed the tense relations with Europe. He said that in the last year and a half, since the spring of 2025, Israel has been in a "containment battle" against attempts to harm the Association Agreement with the EU, that is, to harm Israel's trade relations with the countries of the continent. "All the attempts, which continued also at the last meeting of the European Union ministers, failed as a result of an intensive effort and a camp of friendly countries with close personal ties — with foreign ministers and heads of state who opposed the moves that other countries tried to lead."

"This is a very significant move — we also saw our friendship a week ago, when there was an attempt to produce a unified statement for the European Union on the subject of the construction plan in E1, there were two countries that vetoed — and instead a statement came out from the European Foreign Minister Kallas and not from all the countries. There are countries in the European Union — a double-digit number — that stand by Israel in a challenging period."

Regarding the harsh criticism leveled against Israel following the plan to build in E1, between Jerusalem and Ma'ale Adumim, the source claimed that the claim that the construction there is intended to thwart a future Palestinian state is "ridiculous" — even though this claim is raised by the one who is promoting the plan with all his might, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who explicitly declared that this is exactly its goal. "I say to European foreign ministers — the claim against a Palestinian state is ridiculous," said the source, who argued that despite the possible damage to the continuity of a Palestinian state because of this plan, in practice anyway the entire "Palestinian state" that some European countries currently recognize is divided between the territories in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

"What is the expectation? That we will accept the dictate and say we no longer have the right to settle and we are not settling the Land of Israel, which since '67 all governments, without exception, settled Judea and Samaria, including left-wing governments? E1 is a plan from the days of Yitzhak Rabin. Connecting Jerusalem to Ma'ale Adumim is an Israeli consensus — maybe not a consensus in the Labor party," added the source. It should be noted that the plan for construction in the E1 area was originally presented even before the Rabin government, in 1990, and although in the Rabin government they declared at the beginning of its term that it supports construction there — in practice with the progress of the peace process the plan was frozen.