Israeli Minister: Turkey’s President Erdogan an anti-Semite

The war of words continues between the leaders of Israel and Turkey; Minister Erdan regrets reconciliation with Turkey, saying Erdogan is an anti-Semite.

By Steve Leibowitz, World Israel News

Just a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan exchanged vicious barbs, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan expressed regret that Israel had agreed to reconciliation with Turkey in 2016. Asked about the détente reached between the two countries, ending six years of animosity after the 2010 Mavi Marmara incident, Erdan said, “The agreement should not have been approved, and trying to improve ties with Turkey was a mistake.”

Erdan then went on to brand Erdogan “an anti-Semite who continues to support Hamas.”

As a condition to repair ties, Israel had agreed to pay monetary compensation to the families of Turkish citizens killed during the 2010 flotilla incident.

Erdan rationalized his decision to vote in favor of the rapprochement agreement with Turkey at the time, saying that Netanyahu had convinced him that Turkish pressure on Hamas might lead to the return of the bodies of Israeli soldiers still held by the terrorist group.

Erdan says that now is the time for Israel to “stand up to the hostility and anti-Semitism of Erdogan.”

“It’s odd for a country such as Turkey, which is massacring the Kurds and occupying northern Cyprus, to be accepted as a legitimate nation by the West,” the minister noted. He then touched on a particularly sore nerve with the Turks, telling Army Radio, “It’s possible Israel should have acted against Turkey in the international arena and recognized the Armenian genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire.”

On Friday, Erdogan started the nasty exchange by attacking the IDF’s defense of its border with Gaza, where 30,000 Palestinians gathered in an attempt to infiltrate the Jewish state, saying, “I strongly condemn the Israeli government over its inhumane attack.”

“I do not need to tell the world how cruel the Israeli army is. We can see what this terror state is doing by looking at the situation in Gaza and Jerusalem,” he stated., adding that Israel “has carried out a massacre in Gaza and Netanyahu is a terrorist.”

On Sunday, Netanyahu responded to Erdogan, saying, “I am not used to receiving lectures about morality from a leader who bombs Kurdish villages in his native Turkey, who jails journalists, who helps Iran go around international sanctions, and who helps terrorists, including in Gaza, who kill innocent people. That is not the man who is going to lecture us.”