“Israeli” Navy Chief in Dig at Erdogan: Distance Offers No Immunity

By Staff, Agencies 

“Israeli” Navy chief Vice Adm. Eyal Harel issued an implicit threat, warning that “Israel” would use its military power to preserve its “freedom of action at sea”, including against those seeking to “change the balance of power in the Mediterranean and Red Seas.”

“In the new maritime arena, there is no longer any distant front,” Harel said at a Navy officers’ graduation ceremony.

“To anyone seeking to challenge ‘Israel’ from the maritime and distant arena, I say from here: distance will not provide immunity to anyone seeking to harm us. The Navy was built to bring the power of the ‘Israel’ and the ‘IDF’ to anyone seeking to challenge it from thousands of miles away,” he stated.

Addressing “anyone seeking to change the balance of power in the Mediterranean and Red Seas,” Harel said "Israel" was monitoring their actions and preparing for them.

“We see the actions, monitor them and prepare for them,” he said.

“The Navy will not accept a reality in which the freedom of action of ‘Israel’, or the strategic interests in the ‘national’ maritime arena, are subject to threat. We will be there, and everywhere else, openly and covertly, to fulfill our responsibility and mission in every way,” he added.

Although Harel did not directly name any country or party, Channel 12 reported that the "Israeli" security and military establishment “has no difficulty reading between the lines.” 

The channel interpreted his remarks, against the backdrop of growing tensions in the Mediterranean and what it perceived as Ankara’s ambitions, as “a clear deterrence message directed at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.”

According to the report, “A maritime confrontation recently occurred when an ‘Israeli’ missile boat, sailing near Cyprus as part of cooperation with Greece and Cyprus, nearly became embroiled in a naval confrontation with four Turkish destroyers.”

The report further claimed that “the Turkish vessels approached the ‘Israeli’ ship to within hundreds of meters in the Cyprus channel,” before the incident ended with the Turkish vessels withdrawing and communications being cut off.

Channel 12 said the developments “prompted the ‘Israeli’ security and military establishment to fundamentally change its view of Turkey,” adding that Turkey had been classified as a "hostile state" that could potentially become an actual "enemy".

The report attributed to Harel remarks made during internal discussions that “‘Israel’ could find itself in the coming years facing not only Syria, but Turkey as well.”