Israel Katz has advised the Turkish president not to get involved in the Gaza conflict.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz has issued a warning to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, saying that if he attempts to intervene in the Gaza battle, he may wind up like the overthrown and executed leader of Iraq, Saddam Hussein.
In the midst of the IDF’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza and the rapidly intensifying tensions between Israel and the armed group Hezbollah, based in Lebanon, Erdogan exchanged threats with Israeli leaders on Sunday. Erdogan made the suggestion that Turkey could “enter” Israel in order to aid the Palestinians while speaking at a rally in Rize, the city of his birth.
“We must be very strong so that Israel can’t do these ridiculous things to Palestine,” Erdogan said. In the past he has condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza to those of Nazi Germany – and likened Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler.
Katz responded with a warning of his own on X (formerly Twitter). “Erdogan is going down the path of Saddam Hussein and threatens to attack Israel,” he wrote, adding that the Turkish leader “should just remember what happened there and how that ended.”
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid also blasted Erdogan, calling him a “danger to the Middle East” and a “wannabe dictator.”
“The world, and especially NATO members, must strongly condemn his outrageous threats against Israel and force him to end his support for Hamas,” Lapid wrote on X.
Saddam Hussein was overthrown during the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. He went into hiding, but was eventually caught by US troops, convicted by an Iraqi court of crimes against humanity, and executed by hanging in 2006.
The US under President George W. Bush claimed at the time that the Iraqi leader had connections to Al-Qaeda – a group behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks – and had weapons of mass destruction. Both claims later turned out to be false, but Washington used them as rationale for attacking Iraq, despite having failed to secure the approval of the UN Security Council.
