Israel accuses Turkish PM of anti Semitism

Tue, 26 Jan 2010

Israel has accused Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of inciting "anti-Semitism" by making remarks on the war crimes committed against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

A new report prepared by the foreign ministry in Tel Aviv charges that although Erdogan has stresses that anti-Semitism is "a crime against humanity," he "indirectly incites and encourages" it in Turkey, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.

"In our estimate, ever since his party took power, Erdogan has conducted an ongoing process of ... fashioning a negative view of Israel in Turkish public opinion," through endless talks of Palestinian suffering, repeatedly accusing Israel of war crimes and even "anti-Semitic expressions and incitement," read the report.

The seven-page report written by the Center for Political Research has already been distributed to Israeli embassies and consulates abroad.

"For Erdogan and some of those around him," the report claimed, "there is no distinction between 'Israeli' and 'Jewish,' and therefore, [their] anti-Israel fervor and criticism become anti-Jewish."

"Turkey today, under the leadership of the AKP [Erdogan's Justice and Development Party], is different from the Turkey with which Israel forged a strategic relationship in the early 1990s," the report concluded.

Relations between Israel and Turkey began to deteriorate after Erdogan publicly slammed Israel over its late 2008 incursion into Gaza and charged the regime with committing "barbarian" acts against the Palestinian civilians.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117096§ionid=351020202.