Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pressed US President Donald Trump to block the sale of F-35 fighter jets and advanced jet engines to Turkey, both in a private phone call on Friday and a Fox News interview broadcast on Monday. The appeals come as Trump travels to Ankara for a NATO summit this week, where Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is expected to seek readmission to the F-35 programme and the purchase of F110 engines for Ankara’s indigenous KAAN stealth fighter.

According to Israeli officials, Netanyahu told Trump that Turkey under Erdoğan has become a hostile actor whose leadership “calls openly for the annihilation of Israel” and supports groups hostile to the United States. In his television interview, the prime minister described the Turkish government as “a regime infected by the Muslim Brotherhood” and warned that providing F-35s or engines would “upset the power balance in the Middle East, which is ultimately guaranteed by Israeli air superiority and also by America’s posture in the Middle East.” Israeli security doctrine has long rested on maintaining a qualitative military edge over regional rivals, and officials in Jerusalem view the potential transfer of fifth-generation stealth aircraft to a NATO member that has repeatedly denounced the Jewish state as a direct threat to that principle.

Viewed from Washington, the decision involves competing strategic and commercial interests. Trump has signalled a willingness to make Erdoğan “very happy” on the issue, and US officials have confirmed the Pentagon is examining how to sell F-35s to Turkey despite Ankara’s earlier acquisition of the Russian S-400 air defence system, which led to its expulsion from the programme in 2019. Congressional approval would be required, and Vice President JD Vance has noted that legal conditions must be met. American analysts point to the substantial financial value of the proposed sales—including a separate $700 million engine deal—and to Erdoğan’s role as a key regional interlocutor for Washington, even as his rhetoric against Israel has intensified. Turkish officials, for their part, have accused Israel of genocide in Gaza and described the Israeli government as “a burden that humanity can no longer bear,” while insisting on Turkey’s right to modernise its air force as the alliance’s second-largest military.

The immediate forum for the dispute is the NATO gathering in Ankara, where Trump and Erdoğan are scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting. No final decision has been announced, and the White House and the Israeli prime minister’s office have declined to comment on the private call. The episode underscores the deepening rift between Israel and Turkey, once close regional partners, and places the United States at the centre of a dispute that could reshape the military balance in the Eastern Mediterranean. The outcome is expected to be influenced as much by congressional sentiment in Washington as by the personal diplomacy between the two presidents in Ankara.