Jerusalem and Ankara traded sharp barbs on Sunday, with President Tayyip Erdogan seeming to threaten military action against Israel as tensions heated up between the Jewish state and the Iranian proxy group Hezbollah.

Israel in turn warned that Erdogan’s fate could become akin to that of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, who was executed by hanging.

“Erdogan is following in the footsteps of Saddam Hussein by threatening to attack Israel. He should remember what happened there and how it ended,” Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz wrote in a post on X, in which he linked a photograph of Erdogan and Hussein.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry on Monday compared Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the World War II German Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler in a post on X.

“Just as genocidal Hitler ended, so will genocidal Netanyahu,” the post stated.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan addresses his supporters ahead of the local elections in Istanbul, Turkey, March 29, 2024. (credit: REUTERS/UMIT BEKTAS/FILE PHOTO)
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan addresses his supporters ahead of the local elections in Istanbul, Turkey, March 29, 2024. (credit: REUTERS/UMIT BEKTAS/FILE PHOTO)
“Just as the genocidal Nazis were held accountable, those who tried to destroy the Palestinians will also be held accountable,” it added. “Humanity will stand with the Palestinians.”

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan wrote on X  that Erdogan had “become the voice of humanity’s conscience.”“International Zionist circles, especially Israel, who want to suppress this righteous voice are in great alarm.“History ended the same way for all genociders and their supporters,” Fidan said.

Erdogan said earlier on Sunday that Turkey might enter Israel, as it had done in Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh, but did not specify the type of intervention he was suggesting.
Erdogan, who has been a fierce critic of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza to destroy Hamas, began discussing the war during a speech praising his country’s defense industry.
“We must be very strong so that Israel can’t do these ridiculous things to Palestine. Just like we entered Karabakh, just like we entered Libya, we might do similar to them,” Erdogan told a meeting of his ruling AK Party in his hometown of Rize.
“There is no reason why we cannot do this ... We must be strong so that we can take these steps,” Erdogan added in the televised address.
AK Party representatives did not respond to calls asking for more details on Erdogan’s statement. Israel did not immediately make any comment.
The president appeared to be referring to past actions by Turkey.
In 2020, Turkey sent military personnel to Libya in support of the United Nations-recognized Government of National Accord of Libya.
Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah, who heads the Government of National Unity in Tripoli, is backed by Turkey.
Turkey has denied any direct role in Azerbaijan’s military operations in Nagorno-Karabakh but said last year that it was using “all means,” including military training and modernization, to support its close ally.

Turkey responds to Middle East crisis 

Erdogan’s threats come amid a dramatic flare-up in the nine-month cross-border war between the IDF and Hezbollah. A Hezbollah-launched Iranian rocket landed in the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights on Saturday, killing 12 children.

The Turkish leader spoke as the international community is scrambling to avert a larger Israeli-Lebanese war or a regional one.

Turkey, however, is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and as such, it is unlikely that it could intervene militarily in the IDF-Hezbollah conflict.

Relations between Israel and Turkey, which had been on the mend prior to the Gaza war, have frayed, with Ankara stopping all trade with Israel in May.

Israeli politicians attacked Erdogan, with Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Amichai Chikli writing in Turkey on X and tagging Erdogan, “You are a clown, and the Turkish people know it and will send you home faster than you think.”

Opposition leader MK Yair Lapid, who is a former prime minister and foreign minister, wrote on X that “Erdogan is ranting and raving again. He is a danger to the Middle East.”
“The world, and especially NATO members, must strongly condemn his outrageous threats against Israel and force him to end his support for Hamas.”
“We won’t accept threats from a wannabe dictator,” he stated.