Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz continued his feud with Turkish Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Wednesday over the latter’s support for terrorism against the Jewish state.
“.@RTErdogan announced his support for Hezbollah against Israel’s threats. Erdogan is a war criminal who slaughters innocent Kurds across the Syrian border and tries to deny Israel its right to self-defense against a terror organization attacking from Lebanon under Iran’s orders,” Katz tweeted.
“Be quiet and shame on you!” he added.
Katz’s comment came after Erdoğan accused Israel and the West of trying to cause war throughout the Middle East.
“Israel is now setting its sights on Lebanon and we see that Western powers behind the scenes are patting Israel on the back and even supporting them,” the Turkish leader said on Wednesday.
He further said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “plans to spread the war to the region will lead to a great disaster.”
Erdoğan continued, “We stand by Lebanon against the Israeli threats, as we stand by Palestine, and call on the countries of the region to support Beirut.”
He also ruffled feathers in Cyprus, after Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon threatened to attack the island state in the event of a full-scale war with Israel.
“The Cypriot government must be warned that opening Cypriot airports and bases for the Israeli enemy to target Lebanon means that the Cypriot government has become part of the war and the resistance will deal with it as part of the war,” said Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah last week.
In response, Cyprus’s President Nikos Christodoulides denied Hezbollah’s claims about his country’s alleged involvement in its war against Israel.
But Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Monday, “When you become a part of the ongoing wars in the Middle East, this fire will come and find you too.”
In May, Turkey announced a trade ban on Israel, something that was quickly reversed.
Katz said on X, “Erdogan backed down and canceled many of the trade restrictions. The lesson is clear: Don’t give in to the threats of a dictator, enable alternatives, and don’t be dependent on a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood who can stop everything at a moment’s notice.”
In April, the Turkish president hosted Hamas terror leader Ismail Haniyeh in Istanbul. Katz slammed Erdoğan for this.
“Muslim Brotherhood: Rape, massacre, desecration of corpses, burning babies. @RTErdogan, you should be ashamed!” the Israeli foreign minister tweeted in Turkish alongside a picture of Erdoğan and Haniyeh shaking hands during their hours-long meeting. He tweeted the same message in Hebrew.
Erdoğan has repeatedly likened Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government to Nazi Germany.
“Netanyahu and his administration, with their crimes against humanity in Gaza, are writing their names next to Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin, like today’s Nazis,” he said in March.
In November, Erdogan told his country’s parliament that Israel would soon be destroyed.
