Pod Save America Hosts Call on Democrats to Cut All Israel Military Aid, No Longer Accept AIPAC Funding
Jews, Israelis Targeted in Austria Amid Surge in Antisemitic Incidents; Local Jewish Community Calls for Action
‘All of Our Strength’: Over 1,000 Pro-Israel Activists Gather in DC for Solidarity Conference
‘Devastated’: Wesley LePatner, Killed in Manhattan Mass Shooting, Was a Jewish Communal, Philanthropic Leader
Sen. Angus King Vows to No Longer Vote for Israel Military Aid Until Gaza Conditions Improve
Europe Won’t Pressure Israel to ‘Commit Suicide’ Amid Gaza Backlash, Palestinian State Push, Says Israeli FM
Israel’s National Soccer Coach Attacked in Athens Before Soccer Fans Chant ‘F–K Israel, Free Palestine’ at Match
New York Judge Sentences Neo-Nazi to 5 Years for Livestreaming Bomb Threats Against Jewish Hospitals
US Pressures Lebanon to Issue Cabinet Decision to Disarm Hezbollah Before Talks Continue
UK Plans to Recognize Palestinian State in September Unless Israel Meets Conditions, Starmer Says
Turkish President Erdoğan Attacks Israel Over Temple Mount
Error: Contact form not found.
by Ben Cohen
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in his new $384 million home, the Ak Saray presidential palace. Photo: Twitter
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has again incited against Israel, charging that the Jewish state’s actions on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, a site holy to both Jews and Muslims, are paving the way for a “new intifada,” or Palestinian uprising.
Erdoğan delivered his latest verbal assault on Israel after speaking by telephone with both Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Khaled Mashaal, head of the Hamas terrorist organization.
Erdoğan vowed “not to remain silent in the face of Israeli aggression.”
“Otherwise, in addition to remaining alone in the region, Israel will remain alone also in the world,” he warned.
The Turkish President’s remarks followed a separate attack on Israel by his foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, who labeled Israel’s attempts to restore order to the Temple Mount area, the site of recent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces, as “nothing but barbarity to the core.”
Erdoğan was speaking just prior to the announcement of the International Criminal Court (ICC) that it will not prosecute Israel for its raid on the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish ship sponsored by the Turkish Islamist IHH organization that illegally attempted to break the blockade of Gaza in 2010.
According to the BBC, ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said that while there was a “reasonable basis to believe that war crimes… were committed on one of the vessels, the Mavi Marmara,” the ICC had to prioritize war crimes committed on a large scale.
“I have concluded that the potential case(s) likely arising from an investigation into this incident would not be of ‘sufficient gravity’ to justify further action by the ICC,” Bensouda said in a statement.
The ICC announcement is likely to frustrate Erdoğan, who has been under fire domestically for having installed himself in a palace built at a cost of $384 million. Reported the Daily Telegraph, “Boasting 1,000 rooms covering a total floor area of 3.1 million square feet, the palace is four times the size of Versailles, allowing Mr Erdoğan to exceed the residential grandeur of Louis XIV, the ‘Sun King’ of France.”
Erdoğan often engages in attacks on Israel to divert attention from a growing economic and political crisis at home. During the war in Gaza over the summer of 2014, he asserted that Israel’s alleged crimes were “worse than Hitler.”
