Israel, Turkey Tensions Escalate Over Gaza Security: Middle East Expert

Welcome back to NTV. Good morning. Tensions between Turkey and Israel have been escalating. Turkey has issued arrest warrants against 37 Israeli officials, including the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, over claims of genocide. >> Israel has countered by insisting Turkey shall have no role to play in the multinational security force in Gaza that's supposed to assume control from Hamas and the Israel Defense Force as agreed to as part of Trump's peace plan. Joining us now live to discuss is Dr. Dan Dyker. He's president of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs. Dr. Dker, thank you so much for joining us here in studio. >> Very good morning to you, New York. >> Yeah, thank you. Uh just want to jump right in and get your initial uh understandings of this tension now between Israel and Turkey playing out. Much of what the West doesn't know is that Turkey is making a is breaking away to become the new neontoman Islamic empire in the Middle East. And they see the main obstacle to that goal is a state of Israel. They have been um a freneommy and now they're really an adversary of Israel and they are uh mobilizing enormous pressure on the American administration, President Trump, in order to restrain Israel from defeating Hamas, which is a direct threat to the United States interest in the Middle East, America first. And they are a strategic uh threat to Israel. And now what they've done, as you've reported here this morning, is to engage in a type of Soviet uh Chinese regime, Iranian regime political warfare to try to isolate Israel by accusing it of genocide and filing papers with with international courts. This is intolerable. The United States has got to recognize and act. this the Turks are the Turkish regime is not a friend of the United States notwithstanding President Trump's uh embrace uh for political reasons of Erdogan and I think as they say in Latin caveat mTor may the buyer beware when it comes to Erdogon's uh neotoman um vision aspirations to control the Middle East and replace the Iranian regime as the major power in the region >> so what caused that shift or was it always that way because Turkey was pivotal in the recent ceasefire agreement. >> Absolutely. Turkey first of all we know is the second most powerful nation in NATO. So on the one hand here it it has this you know very profound military security relationship with western powers and on the other and on the other hand uh it together with Qatar and some of the Arab other Arab countries were instrumental in uh signing on to the Trump 20point plan. The first stage of which return the living hostages that Hamas had kept in their death tunnels u for the past two years. They did play an important role there, but they understood the game. And they're playing out the game right now by calling uh these horrific, you know, propagandistic terms and accusations against Israel. And that puts pressure on President Trump and the American administration, stresses the relationship because the president knows that for now in order to make nominally the Trump plan, the second stage of the Trump plan, which is to demilitarize Gaza, which is to force Hamas to give up its arms, which is to bring an international stabilization force, that Turkey is wants to continue playing a role, has offered to put 2,000 men armed in Gaza, which would be a strategic threat. to the state of Israel and Israel will not allow that uh to happen. Turkey knows that that that creates a a uh a very problematic divide and creates tension between Israel and its greatest ally, the United States. They're playing the long game here. >> Yeah, it really is fascinating how you're breaking this down and how uh just because multiple entities are opposed to Israel that they're also jockeying against each other behind the scenes. So I want to get your view on how this um extremism, Islamic extremism directed against Israel gets funded and is that now in your view changing from one set of players to potentially another set of players? >> Absolutely. Islamic extre extremism today which must be emphasized and underscored in the United States every single day is being sourced by Qatar and sourced in Turkey. Turkey we know is a is is a headquarters for Hamas leadership. They plan terror attacks out of Istanbul. The same thing in Qatar. Qatar has spent tens of billions of dollars in the United States buying up organizations buy and investing billions in the American stock markets controlling university uh courses and and uh even departments with billions and billions of dollars. The ISGAP organization has done great research on this out of the United States. This is what is called soft polit soft power political warfare and they and the Qataris even though you know the the administration the Qataris have have called one another allies the these I mean again may the buyer beware this is an Islamic power. This is Hamas in other clothing and and this is exactly what Israel has recognized and has tried to warn and it's very very important to understand that uh that Qatar is has been penetrating as a as a Muslim Brotherhood country uh for several decades and they were quietly but this is a nefar this is this is a nefarious uh uh country that is is backing Hamas and backing other Muslim Brotherhood actors in Syria. uh and in Egypt. And we we've got to recognize that if the the president of the United States who has done tremendous work in the region and his 20 point and his 20point plan theoretically should definitely be celebrated and he's done great things for his great ally, the state of Israel that the the Qataris are not friends of the United States or the West. They have an Islamic goal and they are pursuing that goal quietly by through terror financing and and that will ultimately destabilize the Middle East and achieve exactly the opposite of what the president wants to achieve which is a secure, safe and prosperous Middle East with Israel and Saudi Arabia leading the way together with the United States. >> In our last minute, I just want to understand then who should rule Gaza or what peace force? Indonesia looks like they want to step up. They're the largest Muslim country. Should the UN have a role with some of the, you know, things that have happened questionably with ENRA? Who who should be in this peace force if Turkey should not be? >> Excellent question. It the truth is that there is no Arab country, not the Saudis and no other, not the Indonesians that are prepared to confront Hamas militarily. And if you look at the little writing under the news reports today as we're speaking today that the Indonesians are are prepared to offer 20,000 men, those are for peacekeeping operations, for infrastructure building, for stabilization. No one's talking about confronting Hamas uh with arms and to disarm them by force, to demilitarize by force. There's only one force that can do that, the Israel Defense Forces. They've done it. They can do it. They must do it. It's on their border. who should how we should rebuild Gaza. The Middle East is structured by family, clans, and tribes. In in in Gaza, there are hundreds of families who uh want to defend themselves against the Hamas. Unfortunately, in major uh American media, we don't see the huge outcry of Gazins that are saying, "Hamas, you've ruined our lives." They're they're afraid for their lives to say that on television, it's not a democracy. It's a theocracy. It's so but the truth is the way Gaza should emerge is through uh local councils, local districts having families, clans, and tribes defend themselves against this bloody uh uh extremist regime called Hamas. That's that's the outcome. The the the western notion of a Westfallian nation state uh like the United States and like Europe, >> Jefferson democracy maybe not. >> Jefferson and jonian democracy do not work in the Middle East. It is a different culture. I think the president recognized that when he went and spoke in Saudi and good for him, that's the way Gaza and the West Bank, the Palestinian areas of the West Bank, Judea and Samaria as it's known in Israel. Those areas under Palestinian rule, the Palestinian Authority has to be kicked out. And that's what most of the local population is saying. and the local families in all of the major areas under Palestinian Authority control should be turned over to local councils based on those families and clans that are the notables in those areas. That is that's just like the Arab Emirates. The United Arab Emirates is creates a similar model that can be copied and pasted into other areas across the Middle East. >> Otherwise, as you say, buyer beware. Dr. Dan Dyker, thank you so much for coming in sharing your insights. clearly a hot and we're all watching very closely as this next phase of Trump's 20point plan hopefully goes into play successfully. Thank you. >> Thank you.