Turkey is again comparing Netanyahu to Hitler and, for the first time, threatening to do more than just ban trade.
A war of words has broken out between Israel and Turkey after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened that his country could intervene militarily in Israel's war in Gaza.
Turkish and Israeli officials traded barbs on Sunday and Monday after Erdogan said in a speech Sunday that there was “no reason” for Turkey to be unable to act, pointing to past military interventions in other countries.
While crude rhetoric between the two countries has been common amid the war in Gaza, threats and insults come as fears of a wider escalation are mounting again.
Shortly after Erdogan's speech, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a post on X that the Turkish president was “following in the footsteps” of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein by threatening to attack Israel.
“Let him remember what happened there and how it ended,” he wrote, referring to the infamous capture of the Iraqi president in 2003 by US forces while he was hiding in a hole in the ground near a farm in Tikrit. Hussein was later executed.
In retaliation, Turkey – and not for the first time – compared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler.
“Just as genocidal Hitler ended, so will genocidal Netanyahu,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.
“Just as the genocidal Nazis were held accountable, so too will those who seek to destroy the Palestinians,” the message continues. “Humanity will stand with the Palestinians. They will not be able to destroy the Palestinians.”
'The conscience of humanity'
Erdogan, who has consistently used strong rhetoric during Israel's 10-month war in Gaza, suggested Turkey could intervene militarily in a speech to his ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party on Sunday.
“We have to be very strong so that Israel cannot do these ridiculous things to Palestine. Just as we entered Karabakh, just as we entered Libya, we can do something similar,” he said.
Turkey, which backs the Tripoli-based government of Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, sent troops to the fractured North African country in 2020 to support its United Nations-backed administration.
In the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, over which Ankara's ally Azerbaijan has been fighting for decades against Armenia, Turkey has denied taking part in direct military operations.
But it has pledged to support Azerbaijan with “all means,” including military training and modernization, along with the supply of advanced combat drones and other military equipment.
In a post on X on Monday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan boasted that Erdogan “has become the voice of humanity’s conscience.”
“International Zionist circles, especially Israel, which want to suppress this righteous voice, are very alarmed,” he wrote. “History ended the same way for all the genocidaires and their supporters.”
Turkey restricted some exports to Israel in April, six months after the start of the Gaza war, and said it had completely suspended trade with Israel in early May.
Israel said it would scrap the country's free trade agreement with Turkey in retaliation, with Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich saying the move is reversible when Erdogan is replaced by a leader who is “sane and does not hate Israel.”
