The Israeli foreign minister, Israel Katz, urged NATO member nations to take immediate action against Turkey after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested he would invade Israel if he possessed greater military power.
“In light of Erdogan’s threats and dangerous rhetoric,” Katz directed the foreign ministry’s diplomats to engage urgently with all NATO members, seeking condemnation of Turkey and its removal from the alliance, according to a statement released by the Israeli foreign ministry late Monday night.
Last Sunday, Erdogan hinted at a willingness to invade Israel to end the Palestinian conflict, should Turkey acquire enough arms to do so.
“We must become very strong, so that Israel cannot stir trouble in Palestine as it has done before. Just as we entered Karabakh, just as we entered Libya, we will do the same with them. Nothing can stop us. We simply need to be strong, and then we will take these steps. We will take them,” the leader declared.
Warning to Erdogan
[Note: attribution appears here for context and accountability]
Katz argues that Turkey violated the founding principles of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization by threatening to invade a Western democratic country without provocation.
“Erdogan continues to follow the path of Saddam Hussein, threatening to attack Israel. He should recall what happened there and how it ended,” Katz warned, pointing to Turkey’s hosting of Hamas leadership, which controls the Gaza Strip and has been at war with Israel since last year.
“Turkey has become part of an Iranian axis that includes Hamas, Hezbollah, and Yemen’s Houthi movement,” he added.
Three weeks earlier, Katz was at a NATO summit in Washington, pressing a diplomatic campaign against Iran — Israel’s main adversary — and Tehran’s allied militias.
Ankara, a NATO member since 1952, does not designate Hamas as a terrorist organization and has hosted portions of its leadership in exile for years.
Tensions over Palestine’s massacre
Turkey, historically an ally of Israel and a major trading partner in the Middle East, cut diplomatic ties with Israel last October amid the Gaza conflict and imposed restrictions on Turkish goods exported to Israel in April.
Erdogan has repeatedly championed a solution based on a Palestinian state adjacent to Israel within the 1967 borders and has offered Turkey’s role as a guarantor power in negotiations.
The war between Israel and Hamas has left tens of thousands dead, hundreds of thousands injured, thousands missing, and millions displaced in the Gaza Strip.
“Just as the genocidal Nazis were held to account, those who seek to eradicate the Palestinian people will face accountability as well. The end of Netanyahu’s era will come, just as the end came for other brutal leaders,” the Turkish foreign ministry stated earlier this week.