Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu attacked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan this afternoon, following Erdoğan's comparison between the Holocaust of European Jews and the "massacre", as it were, in the Gaza Strip.
According to Netanyahu, "Those who don't stop lying about Israel, and who slaughters Kurds in his own country; those who deny the terrible massacre of the Armenian people - such will not preach to Israel. Erdoğan, stop lying."
Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz also sharply condemned the Turkish President for his words, even going so far as to call Erdoğan's words "anti-Semitic remarks".
"I strongly condemn Erdoğan's anti-Semitic expression comparing the Holocaust of the Jews by the Nazis to Israeli acts in Gaza," Minister Katz said.
He said, "Someone who systematically violates human rights, brutally persecutes the Kurds, and supports the terror organization Hamas is the last one who can preach morality to Israel. Erdoğan should be ashamed."
Turkish news agency Anatolia released the remarks Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a meeting with Turkish and Muslim citizens in New York State.
"When we look at the Nazi genocide against Jews, we see the massacre in the Gaza Strip from the same point of view," Erdoğan said, rebuking Israeli officials.
Erdoğan also addressed the issue of Jerusalem, saying, "no force or threat can dissuade his country from protecting and guarding Palestinian and Jerusalem rights. The Jerusalem issue is not just about Muslims in Palestine, but is the honor of 1.7 billion in the Islamic world."