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Haaretz Slams Netanyahu's Syria Strikes, Warns of Türkiye Clash
(MENAFN) Israel's Haaretz newspaper has sharply criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for ordering strikes inside Syria, cautioning that the move risks pulling Israel into what the paper called a "pointless conflict" with Türkiye.
In a Sunday editorial, the daily suggested that instead of weighing whether to reignite fighting in Gaza, Lebanon, or the West Bank ahead of the election, Netanyahu opted to open a new front altogether — one aimed at Ankara.
According to the outlet, months of anti-Türkiye rhetoric from Israeli officials culminated in Tuesday's airstrike on a military airfield in northern Syria. Netanyahu has defended the operation as a response to what he described as an expanding Turkish military footprint in the area — a claim both Ankara and Washington have rejected, with officials in both capitals accusing the Israeli leader of playing politics.
The strike itself involved Israeli warplanes hitting the runway at the Abu al-Duhur airbase in Syria's Idlib province eight separate times, leaving the facility's infrastructure damaged. Turkish Defense Ministry sources said afterward that no Turkish military personnel had been stationed at the base, either before or during the assault.
Haaretz pointed to a warning from Thomas Barrack, the U.S. ambassador to Türkiye and Washington's special envoy for Syria and Iraq, who cautioned that the strike "could have escalated into a direct military confrontation" between the two countries — raising the possibility, the paper implied, that provoking such a confrontation was the real intent behind the attack. Barrack added that Türkiye "has no intention of attacking Israel or of entering into a military confrontation with it," while suggesting Israel could be "acting irrationally" given the pressures of an election season.
The editorial argued that the timing could hardly be worse: as global powers work to stabilize Syria, Israel "is acting in a way that contradicts this logic." The paper went further, arguing that Israel's approach is alienating not only Damascus but every other major player with a stake in Syria's future — the United States chief among them.
Haaretz urged Israeli leadership to rethink its strategy amid a rapidly shifting regional landscape, writing that while Netanyahu touted the precision of the northern Syria operation, new regional alliances are taking shape without Israel at the table. The paper was blunt in its conclusion: military force alone cannot deliver security, and airstrikes are no substitute for genuine diplomacy — something it argued has been largely absent under Netanyahu. It called on Israeli officials to heed Barrack's warnings and avoid deepening tensions with Türkiye.
In the aftermath of the Abu al-Duhur strike, Syria filed matching complaints with the United Nations and the UN Security Council, arguing that Israel's ongoing military actions — including airstrikes, ground incursions, and abductions — "hinder stabilization efforts and threaten the region with further tensions." Israel has significantly ramped up its military operations across Syrian territory since the fall of the Bashar al-Assad government in December 2024.
In a Sunday editorial, the daily suggested that instead of weighing whether to reignite fighting in Gaza, Lebanon, or the West Bank ahead of the election, Netanyahu opted to open a new front altogether — one aimed at Ankara.
According to the outlet, months of anti-Türkiye rhetoric from Israeli officials culminated in Tuesday's airstrike on a military airfield in northern Syria. Netanyahu has defended the operation as a response to what he described as an expanding Turkish military footprint in the area — a claim both Ankara and Washington have rejected, with officials in both capitals accusing the Israeli leader of playing politics.
The strike itself involved Israeli warplanes hitting the runway at the Abu al-Duhur airbase in Syria's Idlib province eight separate times, leaving the facility's infrastructure damaged. Turkish Defense Ministry sources said afterward that no Turkish military personnel had been stationed at the base, either before or during the assault.
Haaretz pointed to a warning from Thomas Barrack, the U.S. ambassador to Türkiye and Washington's special envoy for Syria and Iraq, who cautioned that the strike "could have escalated into a direct military confrontation" between the two countries — raising the possibility, the paper implied, that provoking such a confrontation was the real intent behind the attack. Barrack added that Türkiye "has no intention of attacking Israel or of entering into a military confrontation with it," while suggesting Israel could be "acting irrationally" given the pressures of an election season.
The editorial argued that the timing could hardly be worse: as global powers work to stabilize Syria, Israel "is acting in a way that contradicts this logic." The paper went further, arguing that Israel's approach is alienating not only Damascus but every other major player with a stake in Syria's future — the United States chief among them.
Haaretz urged Israeli leadership to rethink its strategy amid a rapidly shifting regional landscape, writing that while Netanyahu touted the precision of the northern Syria operation, new regional alliances are taking shape without Israel at the table. The paper was blunt in its conclusion: military force alone cannot deliver security, and airstrikes are no substitute for genuine diplomacy — something it argued has been largely absent under Netanyahu. It called on Israeli officials to heed Barrack's warnings and avoid deepening tensions with Türkiye.
In the aftermath of the Abu al-Duhur strike, Syria filed matching complaints with the United Nations and the UN Security Council, arguing that Israel's ongoing military actions — including airstrikes, ground incursions, and abductions — "hinder stabilization efforts and threaten the region with further tensions." Israel has significantly ramped up its military operations across Syrian territory since the fall of the Bashar al-Assad government in December 2024.
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