Rich Outzen

Turkey's National Intelligence Academy (MİA), which operates under the National Intelligence Organization (MİT), has recently published a report titled The Anatomy of Israeli Expansionism. The report shows that some of Ankara's leading decision makers see Israel as an adversary that needs to be countered, regardless of who is in charge in Tel Aviv. Published in Turkish, the report is an open source that reflects the thinking of some influential pro-government circles in Turkish intelligence and the ruling AKP. It is also the most recent and most detailed public account to date of how Turkish intelligence views Israel. The academy is part of Turkey's intelligence service, MİT, which has gained considerable influence over the country's domestic and foreign policy over the past decade. The report provides a diagnosis. It finds that Israeli politics itself has shifted. In its words, the radical right, once on the margins of the political system, "has settled at the center of Israeli politics," and its growing appeal among younger generations "shows that expansionism will not be limited to a particular leadership." A possible change of government, the report adds, "will not on its own resolve the legal violations on the ground." It then describes the rivalry between Turkey and Israel as a clash between two views of regional order. According to the report, Ankara wants neighbors that are strong and control their own territory, while Israel prefers weak and divided neighbors that allow it to intervene when it chooses. As a result, every gain in Turkish influence limits Israel's freedom of action. The report therefore treats the rivalry as lasting rather than temporary, identifying Syria as the place where the two views clash most directly. It also points to competition in the Eastern Mediterranean, in the Horn of Africa, where Israel became the first country to recognize Somaliland, and over trade routes such as the India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC). Based on this diagnosis, the report sets out general principles for Turkey. First, Turkey should not answer every Israeli move in kind. Second, it should not try to replace Israel as the dominant power in the region. Instead, it should help neighboring countries build stronger states and security forces, support closer regional cooperation, and prevent ethnic and religious divisions from inviting foreign intervention. The report then turns to specific countries. On Palestine, Turkey should continue supporting a two-state solution and help protect the land, people, and institutions a future Palestinian state would need. On Lebanon, it should support the country's borders and its government's authority. On Syria, it should help rebuild a central government strong enough to control its own territory. The report also links Israel to Turkey's domestic "Terror-Free Turkey" peace process with the PKK. It argues that better relations among Turks, Kurds, and Arabs would make it harder for Israel to exploit ethnic divisions in the region. Finally, the report looks at the wider region. It warns that regional security could come to depend entirely on networks built around Israel, such as US support, normalization agreements with Arab states, and Israel's integration into US Central Command. Turkey should ensure that no security, energy, or trade arrangement that excludes it becomes the only option. The aim is to prevent Israel from turning its military power and US backing into unlimited freedom of action. The report argues that Israel's aggressive policies make this easier by pushing other countries to seek new partners. One example is the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, which Turkey signed with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in August. According to the report, Turkey's advantage is its ability to work with several partners at once, from NATO to the Gulf states and Pakistan. On trade, it recommends competing with IMEC through Turkey's own routes, the Development Road through Iraq and the Middle Corridor to Central Asia. As the National Intelligence Academy's report argues, a change of leadership in Israel is unlikely to alter its foreign policy. (For Israel, however, a change of leadership in Ankara would make all the difference.) Tensions between Turkey and Israel are therefore likely to persist for the foreseeable future. Syria, where both countries are active and pursue opposing goals, remains the most dangerous arena. Preventing an escalation there will require sustained American engagement with both sides, rather than dismissing the dispute between Turkey and Israel as mere political theater.

Iran now has less than a week to cause Trump maximum damage before the midterms. You have to imagine Iran is desperately trying to blow up an oil tanker, but it's not able to. Instead, oil is exiting the Gulf at pre-war levels. Game over for the regime... robinjbrooks.substack.com/p/…

Rant: Got last minute travel today, so won't be doing a Democracy Files drop today. But saw that the person at the center of the files posted about "unimaginable horrors." Let me tell you why I got interested in "democracy" in the first place. I've told this story many times, but here again: I was DOGE adjacent from the very beginning. I was recruited by several DOGE teams in January 2025, because I was excited about the opportunity to finally cut spending and taming the national debt. Bu then - Tesla Takedown protests happened. People got so worked up that they were firebombing innocent Tesla owners. A viral website with a Molotov cocktail cursor prominently featured my husband's address. I was doxxed in the middle of that, and forced to flee the state and homeschool my children. That's when I started researching and writing UNELECTED. I quickly found the groups organizing and funding the civil unrest were all about "democracy." It made no sense to me. DOGE wasn't overturning elections. They were cutting obviously silly awards - given our national deficit, who would object to that? Silly me! Turns out "democracy" means diffused rule by unelected people, and all that USAID money going to marginalized groups to build a "civil society" is the foundation of that. So the immune system of "civil unrest" can be activated anytime, and terrorize anyone who dares to step out of line. Such as DOGE employees. Such as me and my family. That research trail led me all the way to DemAID (now DRG), a group of ex-USAID officers. Led by you and Ro Tucci. @iamlisalogan and @SKDoubleDub33 found DemAID on video taking credit for these protests. But this isn't about me. This is about the United States. And about the dozens of countries wrecked by color revolutions. You aren't solving polarization. You are the source of polarization, because in the process of building "civil society," you are displacing people's inborn allegiances and training them up to attack the very foundations a nation are founded upon. Nor is this about revenge or anger. I'm calling on everyone to pray that no more damage is done, and that we can find a path forward that preserves our Constitutional Republic.

When you say something President Trump and his allies don't like, they run a play to intimidate you and to get you to shut up. It's not going to work. We can't let it.

Canada is lost. This is what the Left does. Socialism at home is never enough. By embracing Communist China, and now Turkey, PM Carney has turned his back on America & made clear that Canada sides with dictators, terrorists & thugs who threaten the security of the U.S. & sovereignty of our allies.

Fear is the point. Intimidation is the point. And if the President can try to do this to me, he can do it to anyone.

A French woman says that the rioters and looters broke into her building and threatened her with rape while she was holding her child in her arms. “That’s collateral damage” responds the feminist activist Bettina Zourli who holds a Master’s in gender studies and focuses her work on gender norms, motherhood, reproductive rights, and voluntary childlessness (“childfree”) She describes herself as “feminist, childfree and Antifa” Zourli also says that all the stores getting looted also constitute a case of collateral damage and that the revolution, which she supports, must be violent. She has lectured in gender studies, including at the University of Lille and Université Rennes.

Spare me the pearl-clutching — especially from Republican Members of Congress and online MAGA grifters who have cheered President Trump's weaponization of the government against those he doesn’t like, as recently as last week. This is a subject I know something about: Less than a year ago, Trump directed the DOJ and FBI to investigate me, and then tried to criminally indict me for a 90 second video, exercising basic free speech. The same free speech you’re exercising now, lying about what I said in this clip. If not for an anonymous group of grand jury members standing up for America's laws, I’d be criminally indicted for sedition. President Trump has turned the government against people, with raucous support from you and virtually all D.C. Republicans. So spare us the manufactured outrage. America must be a place where the rule of law still matters. Those laws should apply to everyone equally. If you have aided in the corrupt use of U.S. taxpayer dollars to benefit the President or his family, or you have violated the law in order to carry out guidance from the President, you should be held accountable. And given how rampant that corruption appears to the average American, people looking to work for his Administration should realize that while the Supreme Court has granted the President immunity, it has not done the same for those who do illegal things at his behest.

Pretty clear that the reaction to the fund crisis in Turkiye has been too little too late. Pretty clear that major changes are needed at the BDDK, SPK and Borsa Istanbul. Their leaderships have failed the task here.