My question is: Does Trump want to cool Turkey-Israel tensions over Syria (Perfidious Albion)
Since Bashar al-Assad’s ouster late last year, however, dynamics have shifted, transforming Syria into an arena of Turkish-Israeli competition. A major source of tension between Turkey and Israel stems from the former’s desire to see Syria emerge as a strong, unitary state with a Turkey-oriented government in Damascus while the latter wants Syria permanently weak and divided along ethno-sectarian lines.
Israel was involved in the destabilization of Syria from the start- the author of this piece does not mention that reality, but, covertly, they were present.
The Israeli government’s perspective is that Turkey’s growing clout in post-Ba’ath Syria poses a grave threat to the Jewish state.
At the start of this year, an Israeli government committee that assesses regional security issues put out a report warning that Syria’s new Sunni Islamist authorities might pose a graver threat to Israeli security than Syria did under Assad
This was always going to be the narrative once the Usrael backed rebels were ensconced in Syria.
An intensifying showdown
Israel began bombarding Damascus and other parts of Syria, while also illegally usurping more Syrian land past the Golan Heights, in the immediate aftermath of the former regime’s collapse nearly five months ago.
Then late last month and at the start of this month, Israeli military operations struck Syrian bases in which Ankara had indicated interest following much talk about Turkey formalizing a military alliance with post-Ba’ath Syria. Ultimately, Israel wants to prevent a future in Syria where Ankara acts as Syria’s security guarantor and can effectively deter the Israelis from carrying out bombing or ground attacks on Syrian territory at will, which has been happening since Assad’s ouster, and was also taking place to a significant degree during Assad’s final years in power.
“Israel saw an opportunity and a power vacuum in Syria after Assad, launching numerous airstrikes and even attempting ground incursions. It also tried to stir up minority groups like the Druze and Kurds to keep Syria fragmented and weak,” explained Dr. Mustafa Caner, an assistant professor at Sakarya University Middle East Institute, in an RS interview.
“In this context, Israel views Turkey as a threat, because Turkey has made it clear that it will not accept a divided and weakened Syria. In this picture, Turkey acts as a balancing force against Israel.” Despite there being a possibility of the tensions between Turkey and Israel playing out on Syrian soil escalating into a direct state-to-state confrontation, many experts see that as unlikely.
As mentioned on multiple occasions Turkey and Israel not allied in Syria- as they have conflicting goals.
On April 9, Turkish and Israeli officials met in Azerbaijan for talks aimed at bringing Turkey and Israel to a common understanding on Syria’s security landscape. The discussions centered on the establishment of a “deconfliction channel” to reduce the risks of the two powers entering a direct confrontation on or over Syrian territory.
We’ve talked this talk a number of times here already
Let’s cut to the chase: Does Trump want to cool tensions between Israel and Turkey?
Last paragraph from the linked article
“In his meeting with Netanyahu, Trump effectively scored two goals against him: first, by announcing plans to negotiate with Iran, and second, by praising Turkey and President Erdogan for more than two minutes. These were major blows, and Netanyahu will have a hard time overcoming them. As a result, I don’t think Israel can act as recklessly as before, and it certainly cannot afford a direct confrontation with Turkey,” Caner said.
Because Trump has shown himself to be duplicitous in his dealings with Russia- Say one thing do another (hypocrisy) and the Russians are aware of this. I’m going to say that Trump is likely playing the same type of game with Israel and Turkey. Superficially supporting both sides, but Israel knows the US has it’s back. So, I’d have to say the answer is he does not want to cool the tensions.