Retired Israeli Maj. Gen. Yitzhak Brik, the army’s former soldiers’ complaints commissioner, argued that Türkiye’s presence in Syria poses a serious threat to Israel. “Even worse, the Turks are sending forces into Syria today, and they see themselves as rulers. They’re right on Israel’s border,” he said in a podcast interview.
Brik claimed that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan says the State of Israel has no right to exist and has likened Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s behavior to Hitler’s, describing Türkiye as a power building itself up against Israel.
Saying Israel is now “in a much worse situation than before” following the fall of the Assad regime, Brik added: “We’ll miss Assad.” He called those who took over Syria “a criminal gang that enters and takes control of the country,” pointing to what was done to the Druze and the Alawites.
Brik has previously argued that Syria’s new rulers could become a far more dangerous enemy for Israel than the Assad regime within a few years, and that the Turks have replaced the Iranians in Syria. The Assad regime fell in December 2024.