November 06, 2025
Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak on the Drone War Between Turkey and Israel (Hebrew)
In contrast, during Israel’s “Operation Iron Swords,” Israeli UAVs from companies such as IAI, Elbit, and Aeronautics dominated Iranian airspace — even over major cities. Dr. Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak, a Turkey expert at Tel Aviv University’s Moshe Dayan Center and the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, notes that Turkish media deliberately avoid covering Israeli drone capabilities — even though Turkey’s own UAV industry was built largely on Israeli and American models.
“Erdoğan often uses the saying, ‘The cruel landlord turns the tenant into a homeowner somewhere else.’ Meaning, since the Turks relied on Israel for drones and got ‘poor service,’ they decided to develop their own,” Dr. Yanarocak explains. “Today, when you look at Turkish coverage of Israeli strikes in Gaza or Lebanon, they avoid praising Israeli technology. But if you open the Turkish Intelligence Academy’s reports on Operation Iron Swords, you’ll see they are well aware of Israel’s advancements and detail its systems and their effectiveness.”
Read the full article on Globes (Hebrew).
Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak is an Adjunct Fellow at the Turan Research Center.