Exclusive: Netanyahu tells CNN he opposes US sale of F-35 jets to Turkey as he downplays divisions with Trump

By Adam Cancryn, Tal Shalev, Oren Liebermann, CNN

(CNN) — Just hours after President Donald Trump said he’s considering selling F-35 stealth fighter jets to Turkey, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke against the potential move, even as he downplayed divisions between the two world leaders.

In an interview with CNN, Netanyahu warned that the sale of America’s most advanced fighter aircraft “doesn’t make Turkey a friendly state to the United States.” In part of an escalating dispute with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Netanyahu described Ankara as “a regime that’s infected with the Muslim Brotherhood, which hates the United States.”

“He’s not exactly a model ally of the United States,” Netanyahu told CNN’s Dana Bash. “He threatens to destroy my country, the one and only Jewish state.”

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in an interview with CNN Turk last week that Israel has “become a burden that humanity can no longer bear,” prompting Israel’s foreign minister to condemn the remarks as “textbook incitement to genocide.”

“This is not a force for peace and stability. When you give them that power, you’re going to see aggression in its wake,” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu said he’d urged Trump directly not to sell the jets to Turkey, saying Tuesday that doing so would “destroy the power balance in the Middle East.”

But Trump, who is in Turkey as part of the NATO summit, has indicated he is willing to overturn a ban on the sale of the jet to Ankara that he put in place during his first term. He described Turkey as an “extraordinary” ally of the United States.

Netanyahu downplayed any divisions with Trump, saying the two see “eye-to-eye” on major issues, even after Trump said over the weekend that the Israeli leader “knows who the boss is.”

“He’s the President of the United States. He does what is good for the United States,” said Netanyahu. “I’m the Prime Minister of Israel, I do what is what is important for Israel, and most of the time these things are identical.”

Netanyahu, who publicly railed against the Iran nuclear deal under former President Barack Obama, has so far held back from condemning the current ceasefire agreement between the US and Iran. The agreement ended a war that Netanyahu was pushing to continue and lifted longstanding sanctions on Iran’s ability to sell its oil in exchange for opening the critical Strait of Hormuz. The pact also floats the possibility for hundreds of billions of dollars in additional sanctions relief should the two sides reach a permanent truce.

Crucially, the agreement fails to address any of the major issues the US and Israel set out at the start of the war in late-February, including Iran’s nuclear program, its ballistic missile production, its support for proxies or the stockpile of highly enriched uranium. Asked about the ceasefire agreement, Netanyahu reserved his judgement.

“It’s too early to say what will happen,” he said. “The president believes that he can stop Iran’s nuclear program, and he believes he can do it through negotiations. I have my doubts, but I think he should be given the chance, and he’s trying to achieve that.”

Netanyahu took a far harsher attitude toward Democratic lawmakers over the party’s declining support for Israel, at one point singling out New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani over his previous comments that while he supports Israel “as a state with equal rights,” he could not back “any state that privileges one religion over the other.”

“It’s ridiculous, it’s absurd,” Netanyahu said, adding that while Israel is an “imperfect democracy,” it is still “100 times better than these dictatorships and these horrible, horrible tyrannies that Mamdani and his supporters support.”

He also criticized Rep. Haley Stevens, a Jewish Democrat running for Senate in Michigan, over her comments that his actions as Israeli prime minister had made American Jews less safe.

“It’s made her uncomfortable because she can’t stand up for the truth,” he said. “She’s trying to probably excuse antisemitism.”

Pressed on whether he bore any personal responsibility for the deteriorating support in the US for Israel, Netanyahu dismissed the suggestion, arguing instead that social media was driving the rising opposition.

Netanyahu also addressed an ongoing surge in settler violence in the occupied West Bank. Describing the perpetrators as a group of 150 “juvenile delinquents,” he acknowledged the issue has “blown up beyond belief.” He said the police and military “take actions,” but the courts in Israel “are very lenient” against those convicted of settler violence. “Our citizens cannot practice violence against anyone,” he said.

Despite Netanyahu’s statements, the West Bank has seen a surge of settler violence – some with instances of Israeli soldiers standing idly by – in conjunction with the Israeli government rapidly expanding settlements throughout the territory. In a one-month period earlier this year, Israeli human rights group Yesh Din said there were 305 incidents of settler violence, including attacks on people and property and land seizures.

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