In the current world order, where regional and global upheavals are taking place, discursive manipulations produced by centers of crisis sometimes reach a level of arrogance that crosses all boundaries. Indeed, the military-political projections targeting Türkiye, published in the Israel-based newspaper The Jerusalem Post, are precisely a reflection of this kind of geopolitical myopia and miscalculation. Therefore, the audacity to place Türkiye in the article directly on a military target line “from Idlib to Istanbul” cannot be regarded merely as threatening rhetoric directed at a regional power. For, we are fully aware that, despite being formally an independent media outlet, The Jerusalem Post, as the country’s oldest English-language newspaper, is in fact “reflecting the voice of the established order” and serves as a “policy-making instrument” and a “public diplomacy screen” used by Israel’s foreign ministry, military, and intelligence elites such as MOSSAD/AMAN to convey messages to the international public.
In this context, the timing and content of the aforementioned article, as well as its publication, which largely reveals the rhetoric and actions of Netanyahu and his team, clearly demonstrate that it cannot be regarded as an innocent opinion or merely a commentary article binding only its author. Therefore, as part of indirect diplomacy, this medium is conducting a ground assessment for theological and geopolitical ultimate objectives.
The historical reality is very clear: just as the “State of Israel” could not be established without the liquidation of the Ottoman Empire, today the fact that the Greater Israel Project (GIP) cannot be implemented without the liquidation of the Republic of Türkiye lies at the center of this strategic mindset. For this reason, by targeting Istanbul in the aforementioned article, the desire to eliminate the greatest structural obstacle standing in the way of Israel’s theological borders is openly confessed. Undoubtedly, Ankara has taken note of the statements in the aforementioned article, its implicit messages, and the medium through which the publication was made with precisely this geopolitical depth.
“Strategic Ignorance” or Another Address of Distortion
This discourse is one of the most concrete manifestations of the intention to misread one of the oldest imperial centers in history, which today, in turn, constitutes the most sensitive pan of the scales balancing the global balance of power. For, in a fragile conjuncture in which the Ukraine-Russia war and the regional conflagrations in the Middle East are simultaneously paralyzing the global system, the Black Sea and Mediterranean basins have become critical in terms of energy and food security. Türkiye, in this tense period, stands out as an indispensable order-building actor that holds the balances in both crisis theaters.
In an environment where the fault lines between the West and the East have become so intensely strained, placing Istanbul on the target board will transform the regional conflagrations into a nuclear or conventional world war and completely collapse the already fragile global security architecture. Therefore, the aforementioned analysis published in The Jerusalem Post, also by virtue of its timing, contains a strategic ignorance disconnected from global balances.
The Greater Israel Project (GIP) and the Misconception of Türkiye’s Elimination
Beyond this, the aforementioned article in the newspaper, as is also revealed in depth in my analysis titled “Israel’s Search for a ‘Great Reset,’ the BOP-GIP Conflict, and the Strategy of Confronting Türkiye with the West,” exposes with a startling clarity the most naked and undeniable historical-theological truth lying in the background. Just as Zionist geopolitics is fully aware that, in the past, it could not establish a foundation for statehood for itself without the liquidation of the Ottoman Empire, it also sees very clearly today that it will never be able to bring the Greater Israel Project (GIP) to completion as long as the Republic of Türkiye preserves its existence.
In this context, the line drawn “from Idlib to Istanbul” is not merely a military operation plan, but a geographical map of theological territorial claims (Arz-ı Mev’ud) and an eschatological appetite for expansion. Istanbul is the symbolic jugular vein of the greatest center of resistance standing in the way of this theological expansionism, namely the Turkish state mind and sovereignty. The architects of the project regard the Republic of Türkiye’s undergoing a geopolitical elimination as a necessary precondition for reaching their ultimate objectives. However, this assumption is nothing more than a strategic misconception, tantamount to suicide, that completely disregards the historical genetics of the region and the survival reflex constituting the backbone of the Turkish state.
Istanbul: Not Merely a City, but the “Axis-Center” of the Global System
The expression “Istanbul” appearing in the aforementioned text is not a randomly selected word, nor is it a word constructed merely to indicate a geographical endpoint. Istanbul’s symbolic and geo-strategic significance has never, at any point in history, fit within the boundaries of a single nation or a narrow geography. It is the intersection of East and West, North and South, where global claims to sovereignty extending from Rome to the Ottoman Empire were concretized.
In today’s multipolar international system, which is being rebuilt, Istanbul occupies the position of the “foundational nodal point” (spine-center) of multidimensional diplomatic networks, logistical corridors, and energy routes. Therefore, any covert or overt threat or attempt at attack directed against Istanbul cannot remain merely an assault on the sanctities and memory of the Turkic-Islamic world. For Istanbul is the heart of Eurasia. A blow directed at this heart would shake to its foundations all the centers of construction of the rising Eurasian geopolitics, from China’s Belt and Road projections to Russia’s balance in the warm seas, from Europe’s security architecture to the Gulf’s new financial corridors. In this respect, Istanbul is a global geopolitical fault line that, the moment it is touched, will set the entire Eurasian plate in motion.
The Geography of War: An Uncontainable “Global Pandora”
The greatest misconception into which The Jerusalem Post and the strategic mind behind it have fallen is the belief that they can confine the geography and nature of a potential conflict within a regional framework. The geography of a war targeting Istanbul can never be localized within the boundaries of this city or in Türkiye’s immediate vicinity. A hand reaching toward Istanbul means opening the most dangerous “Pandora’s Box” of global geopolitics. Once this box is opened, all existing status quos, borders, and security architectures across the vast basin stretching from the Eastern Mediterranean to the Black Sea, from the Caucasus to Central Asia, will be blown apart. Therefore, such a process does not resemble the asymmetric and proxy wars being waged in the Middle East. It has the capacity to create a global domino effect that will directly result in the collapse of the main supporting pillars of the global system.
The Misconception of Strategic Depth: Confusing Türkiye with Other Actors
This strategic arrogance, centered in Tel Aviv, is under the illusion that it can also test on Türkiye the model of asymmetric struggle it has established with other regional actors in the region. For example, the strategic depth, sphere of influence, and outcomes produced during moments of crisis by Iran or other non-state/semi-state actors in the region must not be confused with Türkiye’s state tradition and geopolitical capacity.
Türkiye is not a loosely structured regional power that can be confined within the limits of wars of attrition conducted through proxy elements. Its uninterrupted state mind rooted in millennia, institutionalized military tradition, and its quality as a “central base” provide Türkiye with a “strategic immunity” and “depth of retaliation” not possessed by other actors.
Beyond this, Türkiye’s strategic depth is based on its capacity to confront crises far beyond its own borders, transform alliance architectures, and, when necessary, turn asymmetric threats into a conventional force and destroy them at their source. To regard this capability as equivalent to the reflexes of actors trapped within a narrower space is tantamount to not knowing military history.
Turkish Strategic Mind and the Limits of Patience
One of the most distinctive characteristics of the Turkish state tradition is “strategic patience” and the ability to gradually dissolve crises by spreading them out over time. However, this patience should not be interpreted as a sign of weakness or indecision. The Turkish strategic mind possesses a pragmatic and hard character: it anticipates the moves on the chessboard long in advance, and when its turn to move comes, it completely changes the rules of the game.
The psychological warfare moves sought to be conducted along that imaginary line stretching from Idlib to Istanbul are being meticulously noted by this strategic mind. Playing too much with this mind and this patience carries the risk of transforming a colossal static power into a kinetic storm. History is filled with countless examples in this geography of which empires and regional claims were buried in the dusty pages of history where patience came to an end.
The End of Existing Pacts and the Global Burden the U.S. Cannot Bear
A rupture centered on Istanbul would dramatically alter the course of the existing alliances, military pacts (foremost among them NATO), and all ongoing regional wars in the world. In such a scenario, not only would the eastern flank of the Western alliance system completely collapse, but the bridges between the Eurasian bloc and the Western world would also be completely destroyed.
It is absolutely impossible for the United States of America (USA), whose hegemony is undergoing serious erosion today, to bear or absorb the global cost, geopolitical chaos, and military burden that this situation would create. While Washington is attempting to maintain a balance across numerous fronts, from the Pacific to Europe, in order to preserve its global leadership, it would be crushed under the weight of an apocalyptic scenario triggered through a center such as Istanbul. The United States would have neither the breath nor the global legitimacy to finance, provide logistical support for, or politically rationalize such a war.
Conclusion
These articles, which are virtually press releases for the extremist actions of Netanyahu and his team and the expansionist GIP agenda, are documents revealing what the Israeli security and intelligence bureaucracy is discussing behind the scenes, what it is devising, and what the dominant mindset governing the system is expressing outwardly. These asymmetric psychological warfare operations, conducted as part of indirect diplomacy, are a reflection of a desperate mindset admitting that they cannot achieve their objectives without eliminating the Republic of Türkiye. However, what they have forgotten is that the founding will of this state and its codes of survival possess a resistance capacity large enough to absorb theological delusions.
It is established through a rational and original forecast directed toward the future that those who target Istanbul by viewing it as the greatest obstacle standing before the theological borders possess a global hegemony far weaker than the conditions of the period in which they liquidated the Ottoman Empire. Every threat scenario produced around Istanbul will push the regional and institutional existence of those making such claims into a process of radical liquidation and decline. Daring to play with Ankara’s patience, red lines, and non-eliminable state mind will trigger a conventional storm and an irresistible geopolitical backlash that will instantly reduce all temporary tactical gains in the region to zero.
Such threatening analyses emerging from the pages of The Jerusalem Post are nothing more than irrational delusions, completely detached from real military and political realities and serving to conceal internal political entrapment. Any reckless vision directed toward Istanbul and Türkiye’s sphere of sovereignty will accomplish nothing other than creating a global wreckage that will collapse upon those who conceived it.The strategic mind coming from the depths of history calmly observes such flashes of straw-fire; however, it knows very well how geography and history will be rewritten once the boundary lines are crossed.
As Istanbul is being re-fortified in the process of returning to its historical codes, correctly reading this fortification by certain arrogant actors of the old and new world will be the most rational and sole course in the interests of their own survival. Otherwise, Israel, for example, may go to Dimyat in search of rice and end up losing even the bulgur it has at home!
