Erdogan: ‘Whoever Is On the Side of Israel…We Are Against Them’

The Turkish president’s declaration to supporters is just the latest diatribe against the Jewish State.

By United With Israel Staff 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Ankara will oppose anyone who supports the Israeli government.

“Whoever is on the side of Israel, let everyone know that we are against them,” said Erdogan while addressing senior provincial officials from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the Turkish capital, according to the Iran-based Press TV.

“We do not approve of silence on the state terror that Israel blatantly carries out in Palestine,” the Turkish president stated.

Israel and Turkey were once close allies, but under Erdogan, the Ankara government has become a vocal critic of Israeli policies dealing with Palestinians, sparking frequent verbal feuds with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with the prevailing common wisdom, at least in Israel, that the president views his diatribes as helping his cause among Islamic elements at home within his political party.

Sometimes, he even employs anti-Semitic rhetoric. In December, he charged that “Jews in Israel” beat innocent defenseless Palestinians.

Netanyahu has labeled Erdogan an “anti-Semitic dictator.”

“Hey Netanyahu, behave yourself…You are a tyrant who massacred seven-year-old Palestinian children,” Erdogan told a rally in Ankara in March.

“We have not oppressed any of the Jews in this country. We have not done anything…to any synagogues here. Don’t provoke us,” he said, implying that Turkish Jews could be in danger.

Erdogan has also clashed with the Trump administration.

He said that the threat of U.S. sanctions against Turkey would not deter Ankara from consolidating its military relations with Russia, including Turkey’s deployment of a modern Russian missile defense system.

“I would like to once again express that no threats or sanctions … can prevent us from implementing our country’s security priorities,” said Erdogan.