Collision Between Turkey and Israel Looms

Managing the rivalry between U.S. allies likely will be a priority for the Trump team

- YAROSLAV TROFIMOV

Turkey and Israel are the main strategic beneficiaries of the collapse of the Syrian regime, an event that has capped the dramatic decline of Iranian influence in the Middle East.

But now these two American allies-whose already poisoned relations have been strained to the breaking point since the war in Gaza began last yearare set on a collision course of their own, in Syria and beyond.

Managing this rivalry is likely to become a priority for the incoming Trump administration, putting new pressures on the network of America's alliances in Europe and the Middle East.

"Turkish officials want the new Syria to be a success so that Turkey can own it, and they feel that the Israelis might just ruin everything," said Gonül Tol, director of the Turkey program at the Middle East Institute.

Hostility between Israel and Turkey doesn't compare with the long conflict among Israel, Iran and Iranian proxies. This month's breakup of the Iranian-led "axis of resistance," which used to run from Iran and Iraq via Syria to Lebanon's Hezbollah, represents an immediate and significant security boon for Israel.

Yet, Israeli officials say they are alarmed that a new Turkishled axis of Sunni Islamists could become an equally grave peril, especially given Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's public support for Israel's sworn enemies such as the Palestinian movement Hamas.