If Words Were Bombs, Erdogan Would Flatten Israel
By Jirair Tutunjian, Keghart
Even before October 7th of last year, loquacious and bombastic bully Recep Erdogan of Turkey was expressing his displeasure with Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies in Occupied Palestine. But in post-Oct. 7, irascible Erdogan flew into verbal stratosphere with unrealistic threats to invade Israel which has 200 to 400 nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them. And let’s not forget ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu’s bodyguard Uncle Sam.
Here’s an abridged list of the threatening headlines, starting in the summer of 2023, where Turkey’s pocket dictator challenged, insulted, and promised the demise of Israel.
- “Turkey’s Erdogan threatens to invade Israel, in escalation of harsh rhetoric over Gaza”–FORWARD, July 25, 2023
- “Turkey’s Erdogan defends Hamas and lashes out at Israel”—The New York Times, October 25, 2023
- “Erdogan scraps Israel trip over ‘inhuman’ Gaza War”—Aljazeera, October 25, 2023
- “Turkey threatens to declare war on Israel, send military to Gaza”—The European Union Times, October 29, 2023
- “Turkey’s Erdogan calls Israel ‘terror state’”—Aljazeera, 15, 2023
- “Erdogan blasts Israel as a ‘terrorist state’”—The Times of Israel, Nov. 15, 2023
- “Erdogan speech claims Israel’s end is near”—Al-Monitor, November 16, 2023
- “Erdogan’s threats to invade Israel are inflammatory and only escalate tensions”—The Jerusalem Post
- Erdogan says Turkey stands with Lebanon as tension rise with Israel”—Reuters, January 26, 2024
- “Erdogan says Israel has set its eyes on Turkish territory”—Middle East Eye, May 15, 2024
- “Erdogan turns up the heat on Israel as his party’s popularity wanes” CNN, June 5, 2024
- “Turkey’s Erdogan warns Israel against Lebanon war, calls Netanyahu ‘mentally ill’”—Al-Monitor, June 26, 2024
- “Erdogan will send Turkish forces if Israel enters Lebanon”—The Jerusalem Post, July 30, 2024.
The above thirteen headlines are the tip of the iceberg re Erdogan’s hollow, hypocritical, and self-serving statements. Erdogan, who can strut while sitting down, has ambitions of leading Muslims from Morocco to Indonesia, he makes these vacuous promises. There have been so many of these cheap threats and Turkic braggadocio that even the desperate Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank now ignore Erdogan: they have learned the Turkish dictator has more twists than a pretzel. There was a time when desperate Palestinian shop owners displayed “heroic” Erdogan’s four-color photos on their shelves. No more. They’ve painfully concluded Erdogan, in Texan parlance, “is all hat and no cattle.”
The boastful and lying dictator inadvertently revealed his mendacity when he recently (mid-August) advised to Iranian leaders “the importance of avoiding actions that could escalate tensions in the Middle East.” The man changes faster than Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde. The Turkish dictator also said: “The West has a ‘duty’ to stop Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip.” What about Erdogan’s frequent threats that he would send his “mighty” army to subdue Israel? The noisemaker also said when the war is over, Turkey would play a role in the construction of Gaza. It reminds followers of Middle East news how the United Nations and the United States offered Palestinian refugees flour and used clothes after the war of 1948 which was the result of the UN-US vote to split Palestine into two and give the majority of the land to the minority Jews.
Mr. Bravado now advises Europe to solve the Palestinian-Zionist conflict. But what about the 40,000 Palestinians killed by Israel (Britain’s Lancet medical journal says the figure is closer to 180,000)?
What about the 10,000 Palestinians under the rubble of Gaza and the 120,000 Palestinians injured?
What about the Palestinian civilians imprisoned without charge and tortured or raped by Israeli soldiers?
What about the countless Palestinians whose lives have been ruined?
What about flattened Gaza?
Dear Palestinians, once the invasion (not war) stops, Father Erdogan might send you diabetes-inducing pismaniye
