Author: Nat Wilson Turner Page 1 of 4

Cross posted at Nat Wilson Turner

“…the timing of the politically fatal accusation against Graham Platner stinks. Forgive me for stating the obvious, but the successful campaign to force Platner to give up his Senate bid was not about his character but his politics.” Yves Smith

After Graham Platner was forced from the Maine US Senate race — not because of the allegations printed in Politico, but rather because the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee and Maine Democratic Party announced they were withdrawing their financial and technical support from the campaign — centrists have launched a campaign to purge the party of Platner’s voters, donors and key consultants.

Before we start…

I’ve already covered the machinery that forced Platner out of the race so this post will look at forces that are contending to capitalize on his campaign’s failure to punish political enemies or just boost their own clout.

I also covered the role of parasocial relationships, aka “stan culture,” in this situation in the previous piece. In short, I’m against cults of personality whether they’re built around putative progressives, fake-ass centrists, or reactionary fascists.

With that out of the way, let’s get into the current round of the Democratic Establishment vs. Progressive Populists. Go team!

If He’s So Innocent Why Is He Dropping Out?

From Platner’s video statement announcing the end of his campaign:

The brutal political reality is that they are going to take everything away from us. Those in power who have the ability to do so are using these allegations as an excuse to take away all of the things that we need to run a campaign.

We are going to lose our ability to fundraise. We are going to lose our ability to access voter data. We are going to lose all of the things that any campaign needs on the basic level simply to function.

Larger organizations. The national level party. The bigger donor networks. They have all committed to spending no money in this race if I’m in it.

They would rather see Susan Collins win than have me be the next senator from Maine.

In short, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), headed up by New York’s dynamic duo of genocide enthusiast Chuck Schumer and the astoundingly corrupt Kirsten Gillibrand (who also played a leading role in the defenestration of Al Franken), announced it “will not invest in the Maine Senate race if Platner remains on the ballot.”

Given that both Schumer and Gillibrand were Cuomo dead-enders in last year’s New York City Mayoral election — despite Cuomo having resigned from the Governor’s office after facing “credible accusations” from over a dozen women that Joe Biden’s Department of Justice confirmed — neither of them is a credible advocate against sexual violence and exploitation.

And as Ian Welsh pointed out a very long month ago in his prescient piece “Establishment Attacks On Platner Are Classic Woke Attacks On The Populist Left”, it was pretty gross that Cuomo was forced out of office for being a sex pest but no one seemed to care about the 12,000+ of New Yorkers who died directly as a result of his corrupt COVID policy decisions.

But let’s get to the fight for power.

Reminder: The GOP Incumbent Is A Disney Villain

This woman has done and will harm more women from Maine to Palestine than Platner could do in 100 years

From the archived piece:

Collins is not showing up to the fight empty-pocketed. According to federal campaign filings for the 2025-2026 election cycle, updated through June 7, at least 111 billionaires and their spouses from across the country gave just shy of $10 million to help her keep the seat.

These donations include direct campaign contributions–which are capped at $7,000 per cycle–as well as contributions to other PACs supporting her bid. Among these, Pine Tree Results, the main pro-Collins super PAC, has raised over $16 million and has already spent nearly $4 million opposing Platner.

But the Democratic establishment has other priorities than winning a Senate majority. There’s a populist uprising to nip in the bud!

Open Secrets points out what a deep deep hole the loss of Platner puts any Democrat challenging Collins in:

Platner’s withdrawal … exposed a deeper problem – a financial crater left behind in a pivotal race Democrats view as central to their hopes of regaining control of the chamber.

Before his populist campaign unraveled, the 41-year-old combat veteran and oysterman raised $16.3 million through May 20 and held nearly $2.2 million in cash on hand, according to filings his campaign submitted to the Federal Election Commission before the June 9 primary. While that cash total falls well short of the $10 million banked by Republican incumbent Susan Collins – who in 2020 kept her seat even though Democratic challenger Sarah Gideon outraised her by more than $45 million – it nevertheless dwarfs every potential Platner successor.

Send the Hordes Home In Their Hundred Thousands, 600 Insiders Will Choose

So here’s how the Maine Democratic Party intends to decide who the party’s official nominee for US Senate will be — this after overruling the wishes of a record 156,000 who voted for Platner in the June 9 primary — per the WaPo:

Since Platner suspended his campaign, a half-dozen Maine Democrats have announced they would run to replace him. On Thursday, the Maine Democratic Party said those candidates would need to submit a declaration of intent to run at a nominating convention, including a 300-word statement outlining their campaign vision and at least 500 signatures from registered Democratic voters in Maine.

Hours after Platner’s withdrawal, the Maine party announced it would hold a nominating convention July 25 with 601 voting delegates — 101 who are members of the Democratic State Committee and 500 who will be appointed at nominating meetings in each of the state’s 16 counties. The voting will be conducted in rounds, with the five highest vote-getters advancing to the second round and the candidate with the fewest votes eliminated in subsequent rounds until one remains. Only registered Democrats will be allowed to participate, the party said, citing Maine law.

“We are proud that this is one of the most open and inclusive processes that any state party has ever undertaken to replace a Senate nominee,” said Charlie Dingman, chair of the Maine Democratic Party.

Yea right.

There are many ways to organize far more representative caucuses which could engage far more than 0.002% of the 216,000 Mainers who voted in the June 9 primary — over 156,000 for Platner.

Call me crazy, but I really think an actually-democratic Democratic Party would have some kind of mechanism to remove a nominee through a vote of the electorate, but trial by social media followed by judgment by arbitrary elites is the system we’ve got instead, I guess.

Do the Mainers Even Buy This?

Morning Joe claims that Maine voters are not happy:

Joe Scarborough: I will say this, and this is just a word of warning to Democrats in Washington, D.C. Graham Platner was losing support with independents, no doubt about it. But I will tell you, me and [Mika?] have heard nothing — let me underline that, nothing but support from Maine Democrats on the ground for Platner.

Platner campaign signs are still up. They think that this is Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries and the Washington establishment coming to get him.

They all have the same story. They started hearing 10 days ago that people were coming up to Maine and they were desperate to try to get Platner off the ballot because they thought Susan Collins had too much on him and would destroy him.

I will tell you, without revealing any names, that we have been bombarded by phone calls and text messages from people who want Graham Platner off the ballot, who are high up in Maine politics. And we’ve been getting that for the last two weeks.

So why do I say this? Because there’s a conspiracy? No, not at all.

Go back to what I said at the beginning — a warning to Washington Democrats. You do need to listen to Graham Platner, because whether it’s true or not just as Caddy said about her son who has been working on this campaign, rank-and-file Democrats who have been supporting Platner from the very beginning think that this was cooked up in Washington, D.C. with a lot of money behind it to find anything that could be found to get Graham Platner off the ballot.

And I will say, we know nothing about that. We just — [Mika] and I have been scratching our heads for the last couple of weeks going, why are we getting all these calls about Graham Platner needing to be off the ballot?

It’s almost like the last thing the Democratic establishment wants to do is engage an unruly, unusual coalition of real people.

The Platner campaign activating unengaged people is incredibly valuable, and excommunicating former supporters from progressive organizing would be a significant loss. pic.twitter.com/OFrzKFYfqQ

— Nathan Bernard (@nathanTbernard) July 11, 2026

At least that’s my inference based on this representative tirade from Dem “strategist” Karen Finney on CNN’s The Source:

Karen Finney: I think the the Democratic primary voters owe the rest of the Mainers an apology. Democrat primary voters knew Graham Platner was awful the whole time. They knew that he said society should be disrupted if you didn’t agree with him. They knew that women had credibly accused him of physical abuse. They knew that, in fact, Graham Platner said that he had a very flexible moral compass. The badness is why Democrat primary voters picked him, and they’re the ones that foisted this problem on us. Don’t just blame Graham Platner. Blame, blame Maine Democrats.

It’s hard to imagine why her MSNBC show Disrupt With Karen Finney was cancelled after less than a year.

With the Dem establishment having dismissed the vast majority of Maine voters, the right-wing decided to go full witch hunt.

Going After the Donors?

The right-wing Leadership Institute’s website Campus Reform immediately tried to relive the good old days of the Fall 2023 witch hunt on pro-Palestinian activists.

Progressives should remember that they’re always in the gunsights of the right and that the centrist Democrats do NOT have their back.

Regardless, this attack is weaker than pressing criminal charges on people who mocked the martyred Charlie Kirk.

Let’s look at another story that isn’t as scary as it seemed from a glance at the headlines.

Next, Let’s Kill All the Consultants

(I’m alluding to Shakespeare, not claiming anyone is advocating actual violence)

As annoying as that kind of contempt for the will of the voters is and as scary as GOP witch hunts are, the forces of reaction weren’t done yet, or maybe this one was just Left factionalism, the ol’ circular firing squad.

Turns out some members of the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) — the organization behind much of Zohran Mamdani and company’s success in New York City — have signed a letter calling for Platner and Mamdani consultant to no longer be hired by DSA affiliated candidates.

Here’s from The Intercept:

“We, the undersigned, call on DSA candidates and elected officials to no longer contract or work with Morris Katz or Fight Agency, his political consulting firm,” the letter reads.

Katz is not a member of DSA.

The letter also noted consultants at the agency like Rebecca Katz, who is not related to Morris, were also behind the campaign of Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., and said they continued to advise him even after he made a hard-right turn after entering the Senate.

Two sources with knowledge of the letter confirmed its authenticity.

“Morris Katz is one of the chief parties responsible for the catastrophic campaign of scandal-ridden Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner,” the letter says. “Billed as a top adviser to the campaign, Katz helped recruit Platner and supercharged his candidacy with slick video production, friendly media placements, and political connections.”

The only reason people are attacking Morris Katz is that he’s incredibly effective.

An as Ryan Grim pointed out, this is a trumped-up nothing burger: “This is not a DSA letter. There may be some DSA members writing one, but there are 120,000 DSA members doing lots of different things.”

But let’s follow that pivot at the end of the letter to Michigan.

The Attempted Pivot to Michigan

Former George W. Bush speechwriter, David “Axis of Evil” Frum chimed in with a strong pro-genocide statement:

If you’re an ex-Platnerite now sadder but wiser, there’s still time to stop the “Gaza First” socialists from giving away the Michigan Senate seat for factional reasons the way they tried (and likely succeeded in) giving away the Maine seat.

— David Frum (@davidfrum) July 10, 2026

Naturally, as a “Never Trumper”, the Dem establishment loves Frum — despite, or maybe because they have literally zero electoral appeal — and he feels free to pontificate as if he had the moral high ground.

Establishment apparatchick Neera Tanden agrees:

If I was the El-Sayed campaign, I probably wouldn’t want to be associated with Platner advisors’ previous push for Platner as a future President given that it sounds grotesque today. But then again, his campaign has all the same advisors so maybe he will be next https://t.co/aVqOEmPpjF

— Neera Tanden🌻 (@neeratanden) July 9, 2026

I’ll let David Sirota have the last word on this exchange:

The Clintonites have spent a quarter century trying to purge the Dem Party of anyone to the left of a Wall Street CEO. No guilt-by-association tactic is too grotesque for them. They maximize every unrelated scandal as an opportunity to try to expand their purge (see the below… pic.twitter.com/L7RSusBM6o

— David Sirota (@davidsirota) July 11, 2026

156,000 Mainers Can’t Be Wrong, and Now They’re Pissed Off

Nathan Barnard has a story with a bit more substance for DropSite News:

The 15,000 member volunteer network behind Graham Platner is now using its considerable leverage to push whoever replaces him as the Democratic Senate nominee to be aligned with the same policy platform that drove the largest primary turnout in Maine state history.

Drop Site has obtained a draft letter addressed “to the Maine Democratic Party and prospective candidates” notifying them of their policy demands.

“The volunteer infrastructure that this movement built – the organizers, door-knockers, the small-dollar donors, the hosts, the people who make phone calls and staff tables between now and November – does not transfer automatically to whoever the Party selects,” the letter states. “That infrastructure exists because people believe in a specific platform. It will only continue to exist and only continue to be deployed for a nominee who publicly and explicitly adopts these core commitments as their own.”

…
The tension between organizers and Maine Democratic party officials has grown as they determine a process to replace Platner. A former Platner staffer told Drop Site “all field and data” staff were moved onto MDP payroll before the rape allegations broke for “accounting purposes,” creating an awkward situation for the Platner organizers—who, like the volunteers, are unhappy with the MDP’s manuevers.

On July 8, Platner campaign organizing director Spencer Toth resigned from the MDP over its lack of engagement with volunteers and organizers in determining the replacement process. Drop Site obtained his resignation letter.

“Together, organizers and volunteers built something much bigger than one candidate. They built the largest grassroots operation in Maine’s history, a people powered movement rooted in working class politics and the belief that ordinary Mainers deserve a real voice in the future of the Democratic party,” Toth’s resignation letter says. “But yesterday, the Maine Democratic Party said the people who built this movement will “have no role in determining our next Democratic nominee for US Senate, nor in determining what this process looks like.”
…
“That work matters. It cannot be treated as disposable. The people who knocked thousands of doors, organized their communities, and built local teams across the state deserve transparency, respect, and a meaningful voice in what comes next.”

Toth concludes there is “no path forward to defeating Susan Collins without honoring and engaging the grassroots movement” the Platner campaign built across Maine. The future of the race should not be decided without the people who made the movement possible, Toth says.

“You deserve to have your voice heard and it is incumbent on each of you now to hold the Democratic Party accountable.”

Volunteers for Platner have broadly supported the nomination of Troy Jackson in place of Platner. On Friday morning, the Maine AFL-CIO also endorsed Jackson.

“We can pass Medicare for all, we can take on corporate power and the politicians in their pocket,” Jackson said in his Senate announcement video. “I’ve won in deep red Trump country and progressive cities like Portland and Bangor.”

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. My instinct is that the decision to destroy Platner’s campaign based solely on allegations with no due process has likely cost the Democrats the chance to defeat Susan Collins, but where there’s life there’s hope.

What Was This Really All About?

And I’ll end with Thomas Neuberger’s point about what the Democratic establishment really wants: to prevent change:

Someone wanted him gone, and they found a way. Someone who? And why? What will the outcome be?

Let’s take these one at a time. Someone who?

The perp, I think, is the Democratic establishment — the party in Maine, the Senate bigs in DC, the vast machine that composes the DNC, its well-paid consultant class and wide-ranging servicing groups like print and televised media. The pile-on, when the accusations were more smoke than fire, began early, were clearly political, and deployed in defense of Janet Mills, the establishment’s preferred choice. Platner’s anti-genocide, anti-AIPAC stance didn’t help with that group, and is likely a cause on its own of his strong opposition.

And chief among all the perps is Sen. Chuck Schumer, who clearly places seating compliant Democratics above beating Republicans.

…

That answers the why. Control of the party comes before winning elections. And support for Israeli genocide is clearly a must, certainly for Schumer and other top Dems of his type. In case he hadn’t heard, total Israel-related contributions to Schumer total $1,727,974. That money buys something, happily given or not.

What’s Next?

The battle is shaping up now. As I write, I’m watching Rebecca Traister on MSNOW say Platner was always disliked by establishment Maine and national Democrats, largely because he brought people real hope for change. Yes, that’s what she said: real hope for real change. In my view, only the genuinely anti-establishment can do that.

…

Watch how the Party decides, and whom they nominate. Will Maine get a Harris-like coronation? A loyalist, solid pretender, or someone more real?

Then watch how Maine voters respond, especially those inspired by Platner’s rebellious stance. You’ll learn a lot.

The fight to return the Democratic Party to its historic role as a representative for the working classes will be long and brutal, and it may be too little too late in the context of the fascist Trump regime, but it’s a long way from over.

Related Posts:

• Dem Gerontocrats Try To Crush Graham Platner
• Platner Under Siege
• The Dem Establishment Goes All-In Against Platner
• The Machine Gets Its Man In Maine

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For all that Iran has been mopping the floor with the U.S., Israel, and the Gulf States, things have come to a precarious point.

While Iran has been mopping the floor strategically with the U.S., Israel, and the Gulf States, a Saudi-Pakistani military alliance could enter the fray on the U.S. side and make a difference.

This from Ian’s post of the 12th made my Spidey Sense tingle:

Pakistan used (the ceasefire) to reposition military to Saudi Arabia, and Iran doesn’t want a war with Pakistan.

That said, Pakistan’s taking a real risk here, domestically, ninety percent of Pakistanis support Iran, and the country is one spark from a revolution anyway. The army, of course, will gun down any number of civilians to retain control, but even so…

Plus the US has snared another Sunni-majority country in their military web, Indonesia:

In a joint statement, the US Defense Department and Indonesia’s Defense Ministry said the agreement reflects “decades of cooperation” and a shared commitment to peace, security, and respect for sovereignty.

“Both countries recognize each other as important partners and reaffirm their commitment to cooperation based on mutual respect, sovereignty, and shared interest in regional peace and stability,” the statement said.

Per the statement, the pact rests on three core pillars: military modernization and capacity building, training and professional military education, and exercises and operational cooperation.

Earlier Monday, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met with his Indonesian counterpart Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin at the Pentagon to discuss efforts to boost the bilateral defense relationship.

Indonesia could potentially supply a LOT of ground forces for an attack on Iran, but I’m not sure their population would be into the idea.

Andrew Korybko has more on the US’ strategic aims for the Indonesia alliance:

it was reported that “US, Indonesia discuss allowing US military overflight in Indonesian airspace”, which refers to a “preliminary draft that is being discussed internally” right now, but the writing is on the wall that the US aims to leverage their MDCP to this end. The purpose appears to be obtaining the ability to blockade the Strait of Malacca to Chinese ships in the event of a crisis just like it’s now blockading the Strait of Hormuz to ships that almost all go back and forth between China and Iran.

The grand strategic goal being pursued is Under Secretary of War Elbridge Colby’s “Strategy of Denial”. The gist is that the US must do its utmost to prevent Chinese hegemony in Asia, in furtherance of which it’s indirectly controlling or cutting off Chinese resource imports (Venezuela and Iran) and seeking control over global chokepoints (Hormuz, Malacca, and the Panama Canal), with everything accelerating ahead of Trump’s trip to China from 14-15 May. Trump hopes that this will coerce Xi into a lopsided trade deal.

OR

A nascent coalition of Turkey-Egypt-Saudi Arabia-Pakistan could decide that Iran is on the verge of destroying Israel and decide to jump in against Israel to claim a big part of the prize.

The post-script of Bruce O’Hara’s most recent Substack newsletter made it all come together for me:

While it must be said that Iran doesn’t have many friends across the Middle East, many nations have depended on Iran to restrain Israel’s expansionist tendencies. The nations of the Middle East do not want the war to end with Iran destroyed and Israel intact. If it becomes clear that Israel is almost out of offensive and defensive weaponry, it would serve the interests of Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and Jordan to gang up on a weakened Israel. Turkey’s Ergodan just today compared Netenyahu to Hitler. That’s Iran’s other hope: if they can deplete Israel enough to be relatively defenceless, Israel’s neighbours will suddenly find their courage.

Pakistan’s role as the mediator was no accident and reflects their remarkable geo-strategic positioning.

Three key facts about Pakistan to keep in mind:

1. The current regime has limited popular legitimacy
   Former Prime Minister Imran Khan was overthrown with US backing (he attempted neutrality in the Russia-Ukraine War, his replacements sent huge arms shipments to Ukraine) in 2022 and replaced by the current regime fronted by Shehbaz Sharif. Khan, one of the most popular politicians in the country’s history was then railroaded on all kinds of charges, trumped up and otherwise, and has been in solitary confinement. Khan’s wikipedia page is an exercise in slander but the awfulness of the story still shines through. This makes it very tricky for the Shenbaz Sharif
2. Pakistan has India relatively diplomatically isolated
   Pakistan was at war with India its fellow nuclear power as recently as May of last year and its partisans have vociferously claimed complete victory — with lots of credit being given to their Chinese-built Chengdu J-10C fighter jets. Somehow Pakistan has managed to maintain close ties with China, Turkey, AND Trump’s United States while Modi’s India finds itself on the outs with Trump, at the mercy of an angry Russia for oil supplies (costs tripled for India in March), linked to Israel’s regional pariah zionist regime, and no closer than ever to China.

Pakistan (with the strong backing of China) arm-twisted Iran into accepting a ceasefire and entering talks with the U.S. in Islamabad.

Pakistan also shipped fighter jets to Saudi Arabia. Which is a good time to think about the implications of the Pakistani-Saudi Mutual Defense Pact. DropSite News has some leaked documents:

On Saturday, as Pakistan was in the middle of mediating hard-won ceasefire talks between the U.S. and Iran, Saudi Arabia made a sudden revelation that appeared to undermine Pakistan’s status as a neutral host. In a statement posted on X, the Saudi Ministry of Defense announced “the arrival of a military force from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan at King Abdulaziz Air Base in the Eastern Sector,” adding that the force would include a contingent of military aircraft and would improve “operational readiness between the armed forces of the two countries.”

Those deployments are the result of a defense pact signed last year between Riyadh and Islamabad that has now been activated amid an ongoing regional war and numerous Iranian attacks against military and energy targets in Saudi Arabia.
…
The risk that Pakistan may itself be pushed into the war is also important context for the zeal of Pakistan’s leaders to bring an end to the fighting. Pakistan enjoys good ties with both Iran and the U.S., and relies heavily on financial support from Saudi Arabia. Following news that the United Arab Emirates had recalled a loan from Pakistan last week, Saudi Arabia and Qatar stepped up with $5 billion aimed at propping up Islamabad’s foreign reserves as it deals with fallout from the economic crisis caused by the war.

Pakistan has more than problems, it is in a predicament.

Note the bit about the UAE and Pakistan being on the outs.

That pairs well with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) being at odds with the UAE’s Mohamed bin Zayed (MBZ).

The rulers of Saudi Arabia and the UAE had been very close ever since MBZ backed the palace coup that put the young MBS on the throne in the place of Muhammad bin Nayef, a CIA darling.

Together the two launched a war on Yemen in 2015 (with US backing). That war caused over half a million Yemeni civilian deaths but proved a costly humiliation for the Saudis and UAE.

After the UAE signed the Abraham Accords with Israel in 2020 near the end of Trump’s first term, it seemed that MBZ would lead his Saudi protege into signing on. That changed after October 7, 2023.

The genocide in Gaza made it politically untenable for any Muslim leader to get closer to Israel.

In the mean time, MBS and MBZ’s relationship has degenerated into open proxy warfare in Yemen. The Saudi backed forces whomped ass on the UAE’s pawns in a scrap the UAE side started with some flagrant territory grabbing.

The 12 Day War last June pushed the Saudis to re-calibrate away from the UAE, Israel and the U.S.

MBS signed a Chinese-brokered peace deal with the Iranians. The Iranians have so far left the Saudis with their pipeline to the Red Sea, a route Iran could cut off at anytime by bombing the pumping stations or encouraging their Houthi allies in Yemen to blockade the Bab-el-Mandeb to Saudi oil.

Iran could also take out the Saudi power and water desalination plants and render Riyadh uninhabitable.

That’s where the Saudi-Pakistani mutual defense pact, and Pakistani’s nuclear arsenal come into play.

Saudi FM Prince Faisal bin Farhan: Era of relying on others is over, seen as signal for possible US withdrawal from Saudi Arabia, with Pakistan Army filling the gap.pic.twitter.com/qgzQhbY19E

— Sadaf Baloch (@sadafzbaloch) April 14, 2026

IF the Sauds push the US to leave their territory then they should have no further conflict with Iran, regardless of however many Pakistani troops are on their territory. If they continue to support US and Israeli attacks on Iran, very different situation.

And so does the four way “discussion group” with Turkey and Egypt that MBS has assembled to join Pakistan and Saudi Arabia as regional power brokers.

While neither Egypt nor Turkey is a nuclear power, both are significant military powers in the region.

Both are also deeply entanged militarily with the U.S. Turkey because of its NATO membership. Egypt because of the billions of dollars of military funding the U.S. gives it as a reward for cooperating with Israel. Also the U.S. backed the coup which put President Sisi in power and overturned the post-Arab Spring elections.

But nonetheless, the four countries met in May and discussed a mutual security pact, per Middle East Eye:

Turkey has, since last year, been seeking a security pact with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Earlier this year, a Pakistani minister said in a statement that such a deal had been in the pipeline for nearly a year.

Turkish sources familiar with the issue previously told Middle East Eye that Ankara was also trying to bring Egypt into the arrangement. The sources said the agreement would not mirror the guarantees and commitments of Nato, but would instead serve as a security platform to enable greater cooperation in the defence industry and broader defence matters.
…
While Ankara has repeatedly described Israel as the primary instigator of the war with Iran, a joint statement by the participating countries in Riyadh on Thursday strongly criticised Tehran for its attacks on the Gulf.

The statement mentioned Israel only briefly, referring to its “expansionist” policy in Lebanon.

Erdogan has spent the last thirty months loudly accusing Israel of genocide and quietly supplying them with oil via a pipeline from Azerbaijan.

But since the Iran War, he has upped his anti-Israeli rhetoric, even threatening military action this weekend.

The Jerusalem Post’s coverage could be dismissed as scare-aganda, cheap theater to reassure their readership that Turkey presents a real and ever present threat and might need to be attacked at some point:

Responding to reporters later in the day, Erdogan escalated his rhetoric even further, suggesting that Ankara could choose to engage with Israel militarily.

“We must be strong to prevent Israel from doing this to Palestine,” Erdogan said. “Just as we entered Karabakh, just as we entered Libya, we will do the same to them,” he stated. “There is nothing to prevent us from doing it. We just need to be strong so that we can take these steps.”

The Turkish foreign minister got into it today:

Turkey feels increasingly encircled by growing cooperation between Israel, Greece and Cyprus, Hakan Fidan, the Turkish foreign minister, said on Monday, warning that, after Iran, Tel Aviv could turn its attention to Ankara.

Fidan’s remarks come in the aftermath of the collapse of Iran–US peace talks and amid rising tensions with Israel over regional stability. Ankara has so far remained outside the conflict in Iran but has been accused of maintaining close ties with the Iranian regime as well as its regional proxies, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine.

“After Iran, Israel cannot exist without an enemy; as you know, it has to develop a certain rhetoric,” Fidan told Anadolu Agency. The Turkish foreign minister added that both the Israeli government and some opposition figures were seeking to “designate Türkiye as a new enemy.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has accused Israel of carrying out genocide in Gaza. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz responded by calling Erdoğan a “paper tiger”, saying that he had not reacted to reported missile launches from Iran towards Turkish territory.

“A member of the Muslim Brotherhood who slaughtered the Kurds is accusing Israel – which is defending itself against its Hamas allies – of genocide,” he added.

Turkey’s been on a collision course with Israel since their mutual U.S. backed project to destabilize Syria succeeded all too well and put the famous Al-Jolani, ex-Al Queda and ISIS, in charge.

That added to the relentless political pressure from a Turkish population outraged by the genocide in Gaza and less and less inclined to be placated by Erdogan’s empty rhetoric.

Israel’s dominance of Greece and Cyprus gets Turkey’s hackles up and combined with the Trump regime’s attempt to entice Kurdish forces to attack Iran, Erdogan might be forced to make a real break with the U.S. and go after Israel.

Iran has choices to make but holding to a dead ceasefire while enemies and potential enemies make moves isn’t a good one.