After hard-line Islamist Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan compared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Hitler, Netanyahu joined other leading Israeli officials to fire back.
Speaking in Ankara on Wednesday, Erdogan, who once said, “A Muslim could not commit genocide; he is not capable of it,” declared, “They used to speak ill of Hitler. What difference do you have from Hitler? They are going to make us miss Hitler. Is what this Netanyahu is doing any less than what Hitler did? It is not.”
That catalyzed this response from Netanyahu: “Erdogan, who is committing genocide against the Kurds and who holds the world record for imprisoning journalists who oppose his regime, is the last person who can preach morality to us. The IDF, which is the most moral army in the world, is fighting to eliminate the most abhorrent and brutal terrorist organization in the world, Hamas-ISIS, which has committed crimes against humanity, and which Erdogan has praised and whose leaders he hosts.”
Erdogan, who is committing genocide against the Kurds and who holds the world record for imprisoning journalists who oppose his regime, is the last person who can preach morality to us.
The IDF, which is the most moral army in the world, is fighting to eliminate the most…
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) December 27, 2023
Israeli President Yitzchak Herzog added, “I strongly condemn and utterly reject the words of Turkish President Erdogan. In all of human history, 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. The command ‘Never Again’ remains an imperative for the State of Israel — the nation state of the Jewish people — which is committed to the safety and protection of every Jew. There is no struggle more just than the war against the terrorist organization Hamas, which brutally and barbarically murdered Jews, as well as Muslims, and those of other faiths and nationalities.”
I strongly condemn and utterly reject the words of Turkish President Erdogan.
In all of human history, 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…
— יצחק הרצוג Isaac Herzog (@Isaac_Herzog) December 27, 2023
Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon also had a few words:
It would be prudent that a leader of a country that committed a heinous genocide against the Armenian people refrain from preaching morality to others. Erdogan has made himself the representative of the Hamas terror organization in Turkey and his statements are entirely disconnected from reality. I would suggest that he stop spouting his hollow slogans and instead show the world how much he actually cares by announcing a concrete number of Gazan families that he is willing to assist by accepting them into his country.
It would be prudent that a leader of a country that committed a heinous genocide against the Armenian people refrain from preaching morality to others. Erdogan has made himself the representative of the Hamas terror organization in Turkey and his statements are entirely… pic.twitter.com/Cmz8H1d0rL
— Danny Danon 🇮🇱 דני דנון (@dannydanon) December 27, 2023
Comparing Israel’s surgical actions in Gaza to the mass genocide perpetrated by Hitler is ludicrous; Hitler led a movement to exterminate all of the Jews in Europe, eventually killing six million of them, including one million children. The Nazis went so far as to claim anyone with any trace of Jewish blood be exterminated, a sentiment regarding killing all Jews that has been echoed by the terrorist group Hamas.
Meanwhile, Israel has lost 498 soldiers since the October 7 massacre, a figure roughly equivalent to the United States losing 17,000 soldiers. The Israelis, rather than truly committing genocide by decimating Gaza from the air, have sent their soldiers at the risk of their lives into Gaza to reduce the loss of civilian life.