Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday for calling Israel’s actions on the Gaza border “inhumane,” saying this must be the way they celebrate April Fool’s Day in Turkey.
“The most moral army in the world,” Netanyahu said of the IDF, “will not be preached to from someone who for years has indiscriminately bombed civilian populations. Apparently this is the way they mark April Fool’s Day in Ankara.”
Palestinians mark ‘Land Day’ with protests on Israel-Gaza border (Reuters)
Erdogan, who has turned strident anti-Israel comments into one of the trademarks of his rule, replied on Sunday by calling Israel a “terrorist state and occupier,” and Netanyahu a “terrorist.”
According to Turkey’s Daily Sabah, Erdogan – speaking at a meeting of his ruling Justice and Development Party in the southern Adana province — said, “I do not need to tell the world how cruel the Israeli army is. We can see what this terror state is doing by looking at the situation in Gaza and Jerusalem.”
Israel, he said, “has carried out a massacre in Gaza, and Netanyahu is a terrorist.”
Netanyahu’s “April Fool’s” remark was triggered by remarks Erdogan made on Saturday, during a speech in Istanbul.
“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.”
On January 20, Turkey began a cross-border military operation against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Afrin in northern Syria, an operation for which Turkey has come under widespread 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 500, 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.
According to Turkish newspaper Huriyett, Erdogan said of Netanyahu, “He says our soldiers are oppressing people in Afrin. Netanyahu, you are very weak, very poor.”
Erdogan said that Turkey is “dealing with terrorists. But you are not concerned about terrorists because you are a terror state.”
Erdogan continued: “You are not popular… Stop bragging about owning nuclear weapons. The time may come when those weapons don’t work.”
Though for years Netanyahu took Erdogan’s insults about Israel without getting into a tit-for-tat confrontation, of late he has been less reluctant to answer the Turkish president in kind.
After Erdogan led the chorus condemning the US for recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December, and criticizing how Israel handled Palestinian protests at the time, Netanyahu said: “I am not used to receiving lectures about morality from the leader who bombs Kurdish villagers in his native Turkey, who jails journalists, who helps Iran go around international sanctions and who helps terrorists, including in Gaza, kill innocent people. That is not the man who is going to lecture us.”
Article source: http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/IDF-soldier-passes-out-during-training-exercise-501770
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