Turkey was originally removed from the F35 program because Ankara bought Russia’s S400 air defense system. That decision was never just a diplomatic dispute between the U.S. and a difficult NATO ally. It was a direct threat to the security of the F35 itself. The U.S. feared that if Turkish F35s operated near Russian made S400 batteries, the system could collect radar signatures, flight patterns, emissions data, and other sensitive information about how the aircraft behaves in real combat conditions. That data could eventually reach Moscow, helping Russian engineers improve the S400 and future air defense systems against the very aircraft the U.S. built to defeat them. Once a stealth platform is studied closely enough, its advantage is not erased overnight, but it can be weakened. That is why Turkey was pushed out of the program.

That history is now back at the center of a much larger fight. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used his second Fox News interview in 2 days to warn President Donald Trump not to supply Turkey with F35 fighter jets or even engines. His comments came ahead of Trump’s expected meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the NATO summit in Turkey. Netanyahu was not making a narrow technical argument. He was trying to stop a decision that Israel believes could alter the military balance of the Middle East, strengthen an increasingly hostile government, and expose one of the West’s most sensitive weapons systems to Russian intelligence.

The F35 is not just another aircraft. For Israel, it is one of the pillars of its qualitative military edge.

This was the long standing U.S. commitment to ensure Israel maintains superior military capabilities over potential regional enemies.

Israel operates the customized F35I Adir, integrating Israeli intelligence, electronic warfare, and command systems into the platform. Those jets help Israel operate across Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Iran with speed, range, and surprise. Giving Turkey comparable capabilities would not simply add another advanced jet to NATO’s inventory. It would give Erdogan’s government a tool that could challenge the regional air balance Israel has spent decades building.

Netanyahu made that case by pointing directly at Erdogan’s rhetoric and record.

He said Erdogan openly calls for Israel’s destruction. He pointed to Turkey’s occupation of northern Cyprus, its threats toward Greece, and Turkish statements about Jerusalem. Turkey is not a neutral actor in Israel’s eyes. It is a NATO member that has increasingly positioned itself as an ideological opponent of the Jewish state, a defender of Hamas, and a power seeking influence from the Eastern Mediterranean to Syria. In that context, an F35 sale is not viewed in Jerusalem as normal alliance management. It is viewed as a strategic gamble.

The rhetoric from Ankara has only sharpened the Israeli argument. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan recently described Israel as “a burden that humanity can no longer bear,” a statement Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar condemned as genocidal. Israeli officials have also cited remarks by Turkey’s interior minister about expecting to become governor of Jerusalem. These are not throwaway comments in the Israeli reading. They reflect a government whose hostility toward Israel is becoming more ideological, more public, and more central to its regional posture. For Israel, that matters when the same government is asking for access to the world’s most advanced stealth fighter.

There is also the Syria factor. Turkey’s expanding influence inside Syria has turned a diplomatic problem into a military one.

Ankara has built power through troops, proxies, intelligence networks, and political pressure. Israeli defense officials increasingly see Turkey’s presence in Syria as part of a long term encirclement problem, especially as Turkish influence moves closer to Israel’s northern arena. If Turkey receives advanced American aircraft while expanding its footprint in Syria, Israel would face a more capable and more assertive Turkish military across a theater where Israeli aircraft already operate regularly.

Netanyahu also widened the argument beyond Israel. By mentioning Cyprus and Greece, he framed Turkey as a problem for NATO itself. Turkey occupies part of Cyprus, an EU member state, and has long running disputes with Greece over airspace, islands, and maritime rights. The message was clear. The U.S. should not reward Ankara with F35s while Turkey pressures other Western aligned states and threatens the balance of power in the Eastern Mediterranean. Israel wants this debate to be seen not as an Israeli objection, but as a wider question of whether Erdogan’s Turkey can be trusted with strategic Western technology.

Trump now faces a difficult choice. Turkey remains NATO’s second largest military and controls critical geography between Europe, the Middle East, the Caucasus, and the Black Sea. The U.S. has strong reasons to keep Ankara inside the Western camp. But Israel argues that restoring Turkey to advanced defense programs without resolving the S400 issue, and without addressing Erdogan’s hostile posture, would reward behavior that created the crisis in the first place. The same country that brought Russian air defense into NATO would be given access to the aircraft that system was built to hunt.

That is why Netanyahu chose to speak publicly before Trump meets Erdogan. Once F35 technology is transferred, the decision cannot easily be reversed. The danger is not only that Turkey becomes stronger. It is that Russia learns more, Israel loses part of its edge, and the U.S. sends a message that strategic defiance can be forgiven without strategic change. The F35 fight is not about one arms sale. It is about whether the U.S. still believes Erdogan’s Turkey can be trusted with the crown jewel of Western air power.