President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel exchanged sharp phrases on Wednesday after Mr. Erdogan in contrast the Israeli chief to Adolf Hitler whereas discussing Israel’s conflict in Gaza.
‘‘Is what Netanyahu is doing any less than Hitler? It is not,’’ Mr. Erdogan mentioned in televised remarks in Ankara, Turkey, at a science awards ceremony. The Turkish chief has continuously criticized Israel for its conduct in Gaza.
“They were talking ill of Hitler. What difference do you have from Hitler? They will make us miss Hitler,” Mr. Erdogan mentioned.
Mr. Netanyahu fired again, slamming Mr. Erdogan’s remedy of Turkey’s massive Kurdish minority, saying the Turkish chief “is the last person who can preach morality to us” and condemning his help for Hamas, the group that Israel is battling in Gaza after it led assaults on Oct. 7 that killed about 1,200 folks in Israel.
The Israeli navy, Mr. Netanyahu mentioned, “is fighting to eliminate the most abhorrent and brutal terrorist organization in the world.”
The Anti-Defamation League, which has been defining and monitoring antisemitism since 1913, condemned Mr. Erdogan’s assertion.
“Once again, Turkish President Erdogan uses false Nazi analogies to criticize the Israeli government as he did in 2014, 2018 and 2019, while again failing to condemn Hamas and the Oct. 7 attack,” the group mentioned in a put up on the social media platform X. “Not only are such analogies incendiary, but they are deeply disrespectful to the memory of the millions who the Nazis murdered.”
Mr. Erdogan has lashed out at Israel previously during the war and mentioned that Hamas just isn’t a terrorist group, a place opposite to that held by Western nations.
Mr. Netanyahu was not the one Israeli chief to criticize the Turkish president for his remarks on Wednesday. Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s conflict cupboard, mentioned Mr. Erdogan’s statements have been “blatant distortions of reality and a desecration of the Holocaust’s memory.”
Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, additionally condemned Mr. Erdogan’s invocation of the Holocaust in his remarks, saying “the Holocaust stands alone in its horror and enormity, and his words are deeply offensive to every Jew around the world, and to the memory of the millions of Jews who perished at the hands of the Nazis.”
Turkey was as soon as Israel’s closest pal within the Muslim world and a major buying and selling associate, nevertheless it lower diplomatic ties with Israel after a deadly confrontation in 2010 between Israeli commandos and Turkish activists on a passenger vessel that attempted to breach Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.
The nations restored full diplomatic ties in April 2022, after Mr. Herzog made a state visit to Turkey, the highest-level assembly of an Israeli chief within the nation in 14 years.
Isabel Kershner contributed reporting.
Content Source: www.nytimes.com