Tel Aviv/Ankara: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today hit back after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan likened him to Adolf Hitler.
Erdogan said at an awards ceremony in the capital Ankara today, “They used to speak ill of Hitler. What difference do you have from Hitler? They are going to make us miss Hitler. Is what this Netanyahu is doing any less than what Hitler did? It is not”.
Erdogan continued in the same vein: “He is richer than Hitler, he gets the support from the West. All sorts of support comes from the United States. And what did they do with all this support? They killed more than 20,000 Gazans.”
Interestingly, despite Erdogan’s criticism of Netanyahu, Tükiye retains its trade ties with Israel throughout the nearly three-month military strike on Gaza.
Netanyahu retorted by remarking: “Erdogan, who is committing genocide against the Kurds and who holds the world record for imprisoning journalists who oppose his regime, is the last person who can preach morality to us.”
Netanyahu went on to describe the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) as “the most moral army in the world”. He said IDF was fighting to eliminate the “most abhorrent and brutal terrorist organization in the world, Hamas-ISIS, which has committed crimes against humanity, and which Erdogan has praised and whose leaders he hosts”.
On December 26, 2023, Netanyahu during his visit to an IDF Intelligence Unit #9900 in Tel Aviv, emphatically declared: “We say to the Hamas terrorists: We see you and we will reach you. We are continuing the war, and are intensifying the fighting in the southern Gaza Strip and other places. We will fight to the end, with the help of the most advanced technology.”
Meanwhile, following the explosion of an IED near the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi on December 26, Israel termed the explosion as a “possible terrorist attack”, and Israel’s National Security Council (NSC) underscored the following recommendations for Israelis in India, especially New Delhi:
* Try to avoid going to crowded places (malls and markets) and places identified as serving Westerners / Jews and Israelis.
* Be on heightened alert in public places (including restaurants, hotels, pubs, etc.)
* Avoid openly displaying Israeli symbols
* Refrain from attending unsecured large-scale events
* Avoid publicizing itineraries on social media as well as photographs and details of visits in real time.
– global bihari bureau