Fresh warnings have emerged from prominent Israeli voices about what they describe as a growing and underestimated threat of military conflict with Turkey and Egypt, with a convicted spy-turned-political aspirant becoming the latest to sound the alarm. 

Jonathan Pollard, the Israeli-American former US naval intelligence analyst who spent three decades in prison for selling American secrets to Israel, made the remarks during a podcast appearance for the right-wing Israeli news outlet Arutz Sheva, declaring that Israel must brace itself for wars beyond Iran. Pollard warned that the coming conflict would likely pit Israel against both Turkey and Egypt simultaneously, saying the storm was already on its way.

Pollard’s comments were pointed and unambiguous. He expressed doubt that Israel would find the fight against Turkey as straightforward as its recent military engagements with Iran, and urged Israeli leadership to adopt what he described as an Israel-first doctrine anchored in military self-sufficiency and strategic independence. He also cautioned against allowing the Turkish-backed transitional government in Syria to reclaim territory in the country’s south that is currently under Israeli military occupation, warning that such a development would effectively place Turkish forces directly on Israel’s border. Pollard, who relocated to Israel after his release from a United States prison in 2015, has since aligned himself with the Israeli far right and had briefly announced a bid for a seat in the Knesset earlier this month before withdrawing.

Pollard is not the first Israeli military voice to raise the alarm in recent months. In April, retired IDF Major General Yitzhak Brik issued a stark warning in the Maariv newspaper, arguing that Israel’s political and military leadership had dangerously failed to grasp the strategic implications of an emerging alliance between Turkey and Egypt. Brik said the Egyptian army was standing shoulder to shoulder with the Turkish military in a posture directed against Israel, and that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had repeatedly and openly hinted at the possibility of direct military confrontation. He accused Israeli leadership of clinging to the assumption that the decades-old peace treaty with Egypt would hold indefinitely, while ignoring the rapidly shifting reality on the ground. Earlier this year, Yuval Steinitz, chairman of the board of Israeli state defence company Rafael Advanced Defence Systems, also cautioned about what he called wider regional risks, specifically flagging possible nuclear ambitions among regional powers including Egypt and Turkey.

The warnings come against the backdrop of dramatically worsening relations between Israel and Turkey, which have deteriorated sharply since the outbreak of the Gaza war. In April 2026, Turkey launched what was described as a soft blockade by demanding that ships docking in its ports sever all connections with Israel, and Erdogan’s government formally indicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the interception of a Gaza-bound flotilla. Analysts have noted that Turkey has been quietly repositioning its military, particularly through its deep involvement in post-Assad Syria, in ways that some Israeli security observers believe are aimed at creating leverage for a potential confrontation with the Jewish state. Relations with Egypt, while officially maintained through the 1979 peace treaty, have also grown notably colder as Cairo has pushed back against Israeli military operations along the Gaza-Egypt border.

The Israeli government has not officially declared preparations for war with either country, and diplomats on all sides have sought to downplay the prospect of direct military conflict. However, the chorus of warnings from retired generals, defence officials, and hawkish public figures reflects a growing current of anxiety within parts of the Israeli security establishment about a Middle East that looks increasingly volatile in the aftermath of the Iran conflict. For many observers, the question is no longer whether Israel’s military planners are gaming out scenarios involving Turkey and Egypt, but how seriously those scenarios are being taken at the highest levels of government.