Israel’s Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Minister Amichai Chikli lashed out on Sunday at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, calling him a “dictator,” “Hamas sympathizer” and “promoter of Sharia-based authoritarianism.”
Chikli referenced a short video clip posted on social media in which Erdoğan apparently spoke recently in Turkish about the need of the region’s peoples to unite on the “common ground of Islamic brotherhood.”
It is unclear whether the Turkish leader was referring to the Muslim Brotherhood group, whose national branches in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon were designated by the Trump administration as terrorist organizations on Jan. 13.
Erdoğan went on to say that “We will act with common sense, patience and calmness, and we will not fall into traps.”
He spoke against the backdrop of the recent military campaign waged by the al-Sharaa regime in Syria against the country’s Kurdish minority. Ankara backs the Sunni Islamist government in Damascus and supports the then-rebels in toppling President Bashar Assad in December 2024.
Syrian regime forces pushed forward in recent days through territory in the country’s north that was controlled by Kurdish forces, which also kept guard over prisons with thousands of Islamic State terrorist inmates.
At least 120 ISIS detainees managed to escape the al-Shaddadi prison in Hasakah, according to Fox News.
Chikli’s tweet from Sunday referenced these recent developments, saying that “Erdoğan is not a barrier to ISIS; he is ISIS. He bears responsibility for the systematic ethnic cleansing of Kurds, Alawites and Druze in Syria, in pursuit of one objective: the creation of an Islamist caliphate.”
Anyone truly serious about banning the Muslim Brotherhood should start with: @RTErdogan, a Dictator, Hamas sympathizer, and promoter of Sharia-based authoritarianism.
— עמיחי שיקלי - Amichai Chikli (@AmichaiChikli) January 25, 2026
He bears responsibility for the systematic ethnic cleansing of Kurds, Alawites, and Druze in Syria, in pursuit… https://t.co/SO0QIwRTUo
Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Friday described a reported phone call between the Turkish leader and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian as “Two butchers schmoozing.”
Two butchers schmoozing. https://t.co/x56qTXMsLJ
— Naftali Bennett נפתלי בנט (@naftalibennett) January 23, 2026
Meanwhile, on Monday, National Unity Party leader Benny Gantz told JNS that he believes that no Turkish forces will gain a foothold in Gaza as part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan for the Strip.
“We saw a great vision by President Trump with the [Board] of Peace and managing committee and steering committee, but eventually somebody will have to walk in the alley, find the tunnel, and blow it up, and some people might get killed. … I doubt if anyone can deal with it,” other than the Israel Defense Forces, said Gantz, a former Israeli defense minister and IDF chief of staff.
