Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly urged US President Donald Trump not to sell F-35 fighter jets or F110 engines to Turkey, hours before Trump left for a NATO summit in Ankara, adding Israel’s voice to a congressional push to block US arms transfers to a fellow NATO member.
Speaking on Fox News, Netanyahu said the sales would “upset the power balance in the Middle East,” which he said was guaranteed by Israeli air superiority and “America’s posture” in the region. Though Netanyahu’s language echoes the US legal standard requiring Washington to preserve Israel’s qualitative military edge (QME), that requirement governs only US arms sales to “countries in the Middle East other than Israel” — a category that Turkey, a NATO member state, does not fall into.
“I don’t think they should be given F-35s or the engines for their fighter jets,” he said, while describing the Turkish “regime” as “infected by the Muslim Brotherhood.”
His comments came as Trump prepared to meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the July 7–8 NATO summit in Ankara, where Erdogan is expected to press for relief from US sanctions and for Turkey’s return to the F-35 program.
The F110 engine sale is separate from Turkey’s bid to rejoin to the F-35 program, but the two have become politically linked. Washington removed Turkey from the F-35 program in 2019 and imposed sanctions after Ankara acquired Russia’s S-400 air defense system, which the United States considered a security threat.
The intervention sharpened a dispute already unfolding in the US Congress, where House Democrats introduced a joint resolution last week to block the Trump administration’s planned sale of F110 jet engines to Turkey. The engines, made by General Electric, are intended for KAAN, Turkey’s first indigenous fighter jet, and the package is worth more than $700 million.
The resolution is led by Rep. Dina Titus and co-sponsored by Reps. Chris Pappas, Brad Schneider, Josh Gottheimer, Mike Quigley, Jim Costa, Jim McGovern, George Latimer, and Brad Sherman. Titus said Erdogan’s government had made “repeated threats of military action against NATO allies and other partner nations” and that the engine sale would “undermine regional stability and pose a threat to US allies.”
All nine Democratic lawmakers have received campaign funding from Israeli-aligned PACs, adding up to a total of about $25 million, according to Federal Election Commission data.
Individual totals include $19.16 million for Latimer, $2.29 million for Gottheimer, $1.15 million for Schneider, $825,520 for Sherman, $816,731 for Pappas, $346,385 for Costa, $281,247 for Titus, $89,585 for Quigley, and $77,342 for McGovern.
Netanyahu’s public appeal and the House resolution place Israel’s demand to preserve its military edge at the center of a US debate over how far Washington should go to arm Turkey. Yet Ankara has been a NATO member since 1952, placing it directly under the alliance’s Article 5 protection, which states that “an armed attack against one NATO member shall be considered an attack against them all.”
Netanyahu’s comments also echoed a separate bipartisan congressional letter, led by Republican Rep. Mike Lawler and Democratic Rep. Sherman, warning Trump against selling F-35s to Turkey because of Erdogan’s “constant and growing anti-Israel rhetoric” and ties to Iran.
The Trump administration previously notified Congress that it intended to sell dozens of General Electric F110 engines to Turkey, while Trump has signaled that he wants to improve defense ties with Erdogan. Asked last month about the jet engines, the F-35 program, and his plans for the Ankara summit, Trump said he would “probably do something” that would make Turkey “very happy.”
As things stand, a joint resolution of disapproval does not automatically halt the transaction. To block it, both the House and Senate would have to pass the measure, and it would have to become law, either through Trump’s signature or a veto override, before the 15-day statutory review period expires.
For Ankara, the engines would help keep its fighter jet program on track while Turkey waits for a possible opening on the F-35s. For Israel and its allies in Washington, the issue has become another fight over whether US arms policy should be organized around Israel’s regional military superiority, even when the buyer is another member of NATO.
