Of course "reconciliation" with Erdogan was a mistake
A most huge mistake at that, which minister Gilad Erdan seems to admit now, more on which anon. First, the tyrant of Turkey lashed out at the prime minister after being condemned for his own violence in Syria:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu charged Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday with slaughter in the northern Syrian city of Afrin, taking off his gloves and responding in kind to Erdogan’s sharp criticism of Israel’s reaction to Friday’s march in Gaza.Erdogan's sick as usual, and now, as mentioned, Gilad Erdan's come close to admitting the obvious:
“Erdogan is not used to people responding to him, but he should start getting used to it,” Netanyahu said. “Anyone who occupies northern Cyprus, invades the Kurdish strip and slaughters citizens in Afrin, should not lecture us about values and ethics.”
On January 20, Turkey began a cross-border military operation against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Afrin, an operation for which Turkey has come under widespread international criticism.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 289 civilians have been killed since Ankara began this military operation. Other estimates put that number as high as 510, amid allegations of indiscriminate Turkish artillery fire. There have also been reports of Turkish border guards shooting refugees fleeing the fighting and seeking shelter inside Turkey.
Netanyahu’s statement was the latest in an angry ping-pong with Erdogan, who on Saturday was withering in his criticism of Israel – as he has been for years.
“I strongly condemn the Israeli government over its inhumane attack,” Erdogan said of Friday’s incidents along the Gaza border. “Have you heard any noteworthy objections to the massacre by Israel that happened yesterday in Gaza from those who criticize the Afrin operation? This is the biggest proof of insincerity of those who fixate on us but say nothing about Israel using heavy weapons to attack people who are protesting on their own lands.”
Although for the most part Netanyahu has in the past ignored these types of statements from Erdogan, this time he opted to respond, saying on Sunday morning that Erdogan’s remarks were apparently an April Fools’ joke.
“The most moral army in the world,” Netanyahu tweeted about the IDF, “will not be lectured to by someone who for years has indiscriminately bombed civilian populations. Apparently, this is the way they mark April Fools’ Day in Ankara.”
Erdogan, who has made strident anti-Israel comments into one of the trademarks of his rule – and who hosts Hamas offices in Turkey – replied to Netanyahu’s tweet by calling Israel a “terrorist state and occupier,” and Netanyahu a “terrorist.”
Israel’s 2016 reconciliation agreement with Turkey may have been a mistake, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said Monday, as a war of words between the nation’s leaders over the Gaza Strip became increasingly vitriolic.Well gee, of course it shouldn't have, and I don't buy the notion Turkey's one of the greatest powers in the middle east. All they did was make themselves look foolish.
“Looking back, maybe the accord should not have been approved,” Erdan told Army Radio, calling Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan “an anti-Semite who continues to support Hamas.”
He said Israel must stand up “to the hostility and anti-Semitism of Erdogan. It’s odd for a country such as Turkey, that is massacring the Kurds and occupying northern Cyprus, to be accepted as a legitimate nation by the West.”
Turkey invaded areas of northern Cypus in 1974 and later annexed the territory in a move not recognized by any other country.
In January this year, Turkey launched an air and ground offensive in the enclave of Afrin in Syria to root out the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Turkey brands a terrorist group, but which is seen by the United States as a key player in the fight against Islamic State jihadists. The UN has said that 170,000 people have fled Afrin in the wake of the Turkish offensive. Dozens of civilians have been killed.
Erdan noted that he had always had issues with the 2016 deal with Ankara that ended years of diplomatic crisis, following an Israeli naval raid on a Turkish aid ship trying to breach Israel’s blockade of Gaza.
“I’m not fully comfortable with my vote, and I wasn’t then either,” he said. He explained that “there were many considerations for and against” and that he had considered opposing it, but was convinced otherwise by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Looking back, maybe the accord should not have been approved,” he said. But he added that he was speaking with the benefit of hindsight, and that Israel “did not have the luxury of rejecting a compromise deal with one of the Middle East’s greatest powers.”
Labels: anti-semitism, dhimmitude, islam, Israel, jihad, Knesset, political corruption, syria, terrorism, turkey
