Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he hopes Israel will not end up in a direct confrontation with Turkey, we...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he hopes Israel will not end up in a direct confrontation with Turkey, weeks after publicly calling President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a "tyrant" at the UN General Assembly. Outlining an updated national security doctrine, Netanyahu said preventing that confrontation is what he is actively working toward. "Without naming any particular country, we are taking all possibilities into account," he said. The remarks are a notable shift in tone from his September 24 address to the 81st General Assembly, where he called Turkey "the latest country to become a super spreader of antisemitic lies." He said Erdogan hosts Hamas leaders, jails journalists and opposition figures, and accused him of expansionism, specifically citing Turkey's military presence in northern Cyprus and its ongoing disputes with Greece. Netanyahu had met Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on the sidelines of that same assembly, just hours before the speech. Turkey rejected the remarks outright. Presidential communications director Burhanettin Duran said using the UN platform for "baseless accusations" was incompatible with peace, law, and dialogue, and pointed to the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant against Netanyahu as evidence the Israeli leader could not obscure "his massacres" in Gaza. Netanyahu has been consistent in framing Turkey as a security concern. In July, he told Fox News that Turkey posed a threat to NATO and urged Washington not to sell it F-35 fighter jets. Adding to the political backdrop, US President Donald Trump posted a "Complete and Total Endorsement" of Netanyahu on Truth Social on Sunday, nine days before Israel's October 27 parliamentary election. He called Netanyahu "a Great Warrior Prime Minister, and an even greater Partner for Peace" and warned that if Israel elected the wrong leader, the US might have to act on Iran itself. Polls show the race is tight, and according to Reuters, Trump's backing is not guaranteed to move the needle as Israeli public sentiment toward him has cooled. Israel and Turkey once had significant bilateral ties, but relations have collapsed steadily since the Gaza war began in O...