A minister in Turkey has spoken of one day „ruling” Jerusalem. Israeli officials have warned darkly that Turkey is „the new Iran”. Listen to the volleys of invective flying in both directions, and you might think that two of the Middle East’s pivotal powers are heading for conflict.
The tension is real. Turkey, a mostly Muslim country, fumes over Israel’s ill-treatment of Palestinians. Israel accuses Turkey of harbouring leaders of Hamas, the Islamist group that attacked Israel on October 7th 2023. Each thinks the other threatens its borders. Israel has fostered ties with Kurds, including some that Turkey’s government, ever wary of Kurdish nationalism, sees as enemies. Turkey has close relations with the ex-jihadists now ruling Syria, who appear to be reformed but who Israel fears could one day prove hostile to the Jewish state.
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Israel’s prime minister and Turkey’s president often swap ferocious insults. Binyamin Netanyahu recently called Recep Tayyip Erdogan an „antisemitic dictator” who is „committing genocide against the Kurds”. Then again, Mr Erdogan has likened the Israeli leader to Hitler, saying Israel is a chaos factory fuelled „by blood and tears”.
