Opinion from the Center
If you’re paying attention to the news right now, congratulations: you are watching history unfold.
You’re also being subject to a lot of coverage that is exaggerated at best, false at worst, but in most cases, deliberately designed to give you an opinion before you can reach one on your own.
And while it feels like the American war on Iran may realistically still be in its early stages, the tip of a new iceberg has emerged.
Prolific Zionists and neoconservatives are now at the ground zero stage of prepping the American public for conflict – whether cold or hot – with longtime NATO ally, Türkiye.
Narrative Origins
While Ankara has been out of the Western blob’s good graces for a while now, and its stance on Gaza since October 7, 2023, has driven a wedge between it and Israel, we are now seeing the beginnings of a sharp rhetorical escalation on the matter.
Just a few weeks ago, former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who is expected to run in Israel's elections this fall, told the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations that “Turkey is the new Iran.” Pausing for dramatic effect after delivering the metaphor, his words were met with applause.
Needless to say, considering Israel’s relationship with Iran, which has funded insurgent organizations such as Hezbollah and Hamas, the 2026 hopeful said Ankara is “dangerous” and a “threat.”
While Bennett’s comments were made on February 17 and received coverage from a few international outlets like Al Jazeera (Lean Left) at the time, mainstream media more or less ignored them.
BBC, the parent of BBC News (Center), published a briefing on March 2 that focused primarily on the Turkish media’s reaction to the comments.
Also on March 2, The American Conservative (Right), which has been sharply critical of American involvement in Iran over the past week, aired an opinion on the matter that argued, "The final hegemonic war in the Middle East is coming, and preparations are being made to drag America into it."
One would think an Israeli politician escalating rhetoric toward a NATO member in such a defiant way would raise journalists’ eyebrows, but other than that, it was crickets from Western media.
WSJ Opinion Takes it Mainstream
Then, on March 4, a piece appeared in The Wall Street Journal Opinion (Lean Right): “An Urgent Need to Contain Turkey.”
The author, Bradley Martin, who serves as Executive Director at the Near East Center for Strategic Studies, makes no bones about his stance and opens, “While neutralizing the regional threat posed by Iran, the U.S. and Israel must ensure that Turkey doesn’t take its place.”
On its face, it seems like a fairly innocuous statement – though “neutralizing the regional threat” did include the assassination of a head of state.
Martin doesn’t mention Prime Minister Bennett’s recent comments anywhere in his opinion, but instead dresses the same conclusion in an appeal to Americans.
Throughout the piece, he frames Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as a threat because he “criticized” the US-Israeli attacks on Iran – something many Americans have also done – and previously cracked down on Iranian dissent within his own country.
From there, he claimed Erdoğan views himself as a “modern-day Ottoman sultan,” and says Türkiye has been “a bad partner for NATO when it comes to Iran.”
Martin concludes, “The U.S. shouldn’t forget that Turkey opposes U.S. foreign policy and is a headache for its allies.”
Martin’s Opinion Makes Noise
A day after WSJ Opinion published Martin’s piece, The New York Post Opinion (Right) published “Beware Turkey’s ambitions in the post-Iran power vacuum” by Jonathan Schanzer.
Schanzer, the Executive Director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and formerly a terror finance analyst for the US Treasury, also quote-tweeted Martin’s WSJ opinion on X and wrote, “It’s like this guy is reading my mind. Or my X feed.” For context, commentators at libertarian magazine Reason (Center) and Slate (Left) have described FDD as “neoconservative” and “pro-Israel” respectively.
Ellie Cohanim, who hosts the “America Unfiltered” podcast run by Saudi Arabian state media organization Al Arabiya and served in Trump’s first administration as a Deputy Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, shared Martin’s opinion and said, “This is astute analysis on Turkey.”
Conservative commentator James Lindsay, who describes himself as a “Perennial outsider. Cancelled by both sides” and “Pro-America. Anti-Communist. Anti-Fascist,” shared Martin’s opinion and wrote, “This is correct. Turkey has big ambitions, and they're not all good.”
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), who sits on the House Oversight and Foreign Affairs Committees, also weighed in and offered pushback. She didn’t directly mention Martin’s WSJ opinion, but posted, “Turkey is NOT the ‘New Iran’ and WE (the U.S.) will continue to foster our relationship with them.”
Pro-Zionist Source Bias
In a November 2025 AllSides Editorial Review of WSJ Opinion, AllSides team members noted a “strong pro-Zionist” bias at the outlet.
The aforementioned feature was author Bradley Martin’s first opinion for The Journal; though a quick review of some of his other published opinions reveals a strong and consistent pro-Zionist bias as well.
In January, when mainstream media outlets struggled for weeks to accurately report death tolls coming out of Iran during anti-government demonstrations, Martin referenced upper-bound estimates in The Washington Times (Lean Right) and blamed "antisemitism" for the lack of American protests surrounding them.
In September, he argued in The Washington Examiner (Lean Right) that France’s recognition of a Palestinian state “rewarded terrorism” and that “Western democracies will surely pay the price of this act for years to come.”
A Paper Trail as Clear as Day
Withstanding the above, the chain of events is clear. As Turkish-Israeli relations have deteriorated to a low in recent years, America’s most significant strategic partner – or client state, depending on how one views it – in the Middle East has understandably stiffened its posture towards its regional adversary.
With the prospect of a neutered Iran on the horizon, the Israeli establishment has already begun to shift its focus to Türkiye. And as is the case with most of its regional ambitions, it will likely need the economic, diplomatic, and physical strength of the United States to have a chance at accomplishing its goals.
So, in light of Naftali Bennett’s comments, pro-Zionist papers have published pro-Zionist authors and begun to test the waters. Should the matter continue to climb from the periphery into focus, the American public, which presumably doesn’t yet understand why Türkiye may or may not be a regional “threat,” should take an interest.
Andy Gorel is the Managing Editor at AllSides. He has a Center bias.
This piece was reviewed by Evan Wagner, Product Manager (Lean Left), and Malayna Bizier, News Analyst and Social Media Editor (Right).
