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On Thursday, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s Prime Minister, launched a strong verbal attack on Israel, and accused it of showing “Hitler-like fascism” against Palestinians in its offensive in Gaza.
The Turkish premier, speaking at a rally in Turkey during his Presidential campaign, said that he we willing to part with an award given to him by the American Jewish Congress in 2004. The Jewish group wants the award back after Erdogan had compared Israel to the Third Reich, when millions of Jews were murdered in the Holocaust.
“If you support this cruelty, this genocide, this Hitler-like fascism and child murderer regime, take your award back”, Erdogan said. He showed no signs of curtailing rhetoric which has angered Israel and the United States.
“What is the difference between Israeli actions and those of the Nazis and Hitler?How can you explain what the Israeli state has been doing in Gaza, Palestine, if not genocide?This is racism. This is fascism. This is keeping Hitler’s spirit alive”, he said.
Erdogan, who often presents himself as a champion of Palestinians, has lately intensified his criticism of the Israeli aggression in Gaza and fired tirades almost every day at election rallies. He has been accused of anti-Semitism by American and Israeli Jewish groups. He responded by saying that his and Turkey’s record of protecting Jews was beyond reproach.
“Who stood up for Jews at a time when they were expelled from their home countries? It was our ancestors, it was the Ottomans”, he said, referring to the time when Jews expelled from Spain were given sanctuary in Turkey in the 15th century.
“Aren’t you embarrassed? How immoral you are…. It is us who protects the Jews on our soil and lets them live safely”, he said.
Most analysts agree that his rhetoric has probably ended the possibility of Israel and Turkey normalizing their relations. Diplomatic ties between the two had gone sour when Israeli forces stormed a Turkish ship carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza in 2010; ten activists were killed in the attack.
