In a worst-case confrontation, these powers could execute a classic pincer movement.
By Hezy Laing
The ongoing neutralization of Iran’s regional network drastically altered Israel’s security paradigm, effectively weakening the immediate border threats posed by Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
However, this triumph has inadvertently exposed Israel to a more formidable secondary tier of conventional state adversaries.
Geopolitical shifts indicate that Egypt, led by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and Turkey, under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, may be aligning strategies to attack Israel.
This potential axis is fueled by surging antisemitism in both nations.
Turkish state media routinely amplifies anti-Jewish rhetoric, while Egyptian talk shows and state-approved publications have normalized hostile narratives, shifting public sentiment from anti-Zionist to overtly antisemitic.
Both nations possess massive, rapidly modernizing militaries.
Turkey’s Armed Forces boast over 350,000 active personnel, utilizing domestically produced Altay tanks and Bayraktar TB3 combat drones.
Egypt’s military features 440,000 active troops, over 1,000 American-made M1A1 Abrams tanks, and newly acquired French Rafale fighter jets.
Erdogan has explicitly threatened direct intervention against Jerusalem, while el-Sisi’s government has quietly overseen a massive infrastructure build-up in the Sinai Peninsula.
Egypt has constructed an expansive network of tunnels under the Suez Canal, reinforced concrete fuel depots, and built multi-lane military highways capable of rapidly deploying heavy armor directly to the Israeli border, bypassing the demilitarization spirit of the Camp David Accords.
In a worst-case confrontation, these powers could execute a classic pincer movement.
Turkey would project power from the north, utilizing its blue-water navy to impose a maritime blockade in the Eastern Mediterranean while launching long-range TAYFUN ballistic missiles.
Simultaneously, Egypt would launch a massive mechanized ground assault from the south, pushing armored divisions through the Sinai toward the Negev Desert, trapping Israel in a high-intensity, multi-front vice.
Israel’s defense strategy relies on technological superiority and rapid mobilization.
The Israel Defense Forces would utilize the Arrow 3 and David’s Sling air defense systems to neutralize Turkish missile salvos.
At sea, Sa’ar 6-class corvettes equipped with Gabriel V anti-ship missiles would defend vital gas fields and break maritime blockades.
Likud MK Amit Halevi has been especially vocal of the growing threat.
“You see the two huge armies of Egypt and Turkey, which are investing huge sums, and what are we doing?” demanded MK Halevi.
“Two superpowers that are in a terrible economic crisis and yet choose to strengthen their military on a scale unprecedented in their history, and they are doing this at a time when antisemitic content within them is also reaching a high in years, and all under the direction of the state. What dare we doing about it?”
