Erdogan, Netanyahu Trade Barbs After Turkish Leader Calls Israeli PM 'No Different From Hitler'

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was no different from Adolf Hitler and likened Israel's attacks on Gaza to the treatment of Jewish people by the Nazis.

NATO member Turkey, which supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has criticized Israel's air and ground assault on Gaza, called it a "terror state" and said its leaders must be tried in international courts.

Sharpening his rhetoric, Erdogan said Turkey would welcome academics and scientists facing persecution for their views on the conflict in Gaza, adding Western countries supporting Israel were complicit in what he called war crimes.

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"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 said.

"He is richer than Hitler, he gets the support from the West. All sorts of support come from the United States. And what did they do with all this support? They killed more than 20,000 Gazans," he said.

Netanyahu responded by saying the Turkish president should be the last person to lecture Israel.

"Erdogan is committing genocide of the Kurds, has broken the world record for imprisoning journalists who critique his government, and is the last person who can morally lecture us."

Netanyahu added in a press release that the Israeli army is battling the terror organization Hamas, while Erdogan is "praising them and hosting their senior officials."

Government minister Benny Gantz responded to Erdogan's statements, saying his words are "a disgrace to the memory of the Holocaust, and a distortion of reality. Hamas is the one who committed a massacre."

President Isaac Herzog said that "his words are deeply offensive to every Jew around the world, and to the memory of the millions of Jews who perished at the hands of the Nazis.."

Opposition leader Yair Lapid tweeted that he "strongly condemns Erdogan's words and the shameful comparison to the Holocaust and Hitler."

Likud MK Danny Danon said that "Erdogan has made himself the representative of Hamas in Turkey, and his statements are disconnected from reality. It is better for him to stop with the empty slogans and instead announce how many Gazan refugees he is willing to accept in his country."

On September 20, the first ever meeting was held between Netanyahu and Erdogan - who until then had only spoken on the phone - as part of the annual gathering of the United Nations General Assembly. Netanyahu said at the time that "our ties are getting stronger" and the two invited each other to visit their countries.

After the On October 7, the President of Turkey actually stood up publicly to support Israel following the massacre and signaled his willingness to assist in the release of the hostages. He even spoke on the phone with President Isaac Herzog two days after the attack, asked to share in the grief of the citizens of Israel and repeated his call for the restoration of stability in the region.

However, around two weeks after Hamas' massacre of Israeli communities bordering Gaza which saw 1,200 people slaughtered, Erdogan described Hamas as not a terrorist organization, but "a liberation group waging a battle to protect its land."

Israel responded by recalling its envoy, which led to Turkey recalling its own ambassador in November.