Liberman calls Turkey’s Erdogan ‘an anti-Semitic, neighborhood bully’

Netanyahu calls on world to condemn Turkish president for supporting terrorists.

JPOST

Both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman slammed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday, with Liberman calling him an “anti-Semitic, neighborhood bully,” and Netanyahu saying indirectly that he supported terrorism.

“The war against terrorism will not succeed if it is based on hypocrisy,” Netanyahu said after a meeting in Jerusalem with an AIPAC delegation. “And up until now I have not heard one world leader condemn the words of Turkish President Erdogan.”

The Turkish leader on Monday blasted Netanyahu’s participation a day earlier in the massive march against terrorism and in support of free-speech in Paris, saying he did not understand how Netanyahu “dared go there.” In a reference to the summer’s Operation Protective Edge, he said Netanyahu should “give an account for the children, women you massacred.”

“I believe that those shameful comments should be rejected by the international community, since the war against terrorism will only succeed if it will be guided by moral clarity, that is to say that the terrorists and those who support them should be condemned, and those who fight them, like Israel and the US, should be supported.”

Turkey is one of the few countries in the world that openly and enthusiastically supports Hamas, an organization on the EU’s list of terrorist groups.

Liberman, meanwhile, said that Erdogan’s vitriolic attacks against Israel was one of the reasons for the surge of anti-Semitism in Europe. He told a gathering of Israel’s ambassadors to Euro-Asia at the Foreign Ministry that there were severe ramifications to Europe ignoring the hate and incitement Erdogan cultivates toward Israel.

“The silence of the lambs of cultured Europe, politically correct Europe, toward a neighborhood and anti-Semitic bully like Erdogan and his friends brings us back to the reality of the 1930s,” he said.

Liberman, who seemed up until now to have been trying to move toward the political center, bucked that trend during the speech, calling for the ouster of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whom he accused of waging “diplomatic terror” against Israel.

In a sign that Liberman is in the midst of a tough election campaign, with his Yisrael Beytneu party plagued by corruption allegations hurting badly in the polls, the foreign minister’s spokespeople billed his comments beforehand as an important diplomatic address, and for the first time actually distributed the text of his speech to reporters before delivery.

In the address, Liberman said Abbas’ anti-Israel moves in the diplomatic arena left the country no choice but to act strongly in response, and that the transfer of tax funds to the PA that were frozen earlier this month should not be freed up again until Abbas was removed from power.

Liberman said that Abbas was an obstacle to any diplomatic progress, and was concerned solely about his political survival, not a Palestinian state nor the fate of the Palestinian people.

“The only way for him to cover his weakness against Hamas and his [political] opposition is by waging war [against Israel] in the international arena,” he said. “That is the way he diverts attention on the Palestinian street, and that is how he comes out as a hero.”

But, Liberman said, those moves do nothing to bring him closer to a Palestinian state.

Liberman charged that Abbas’ recent steps in the diplomatic arena constituted a crossing of all red lines, and that Israel had no choice “but to take determined actions” against him.

The Foreign Minister said that this time the freezing of the transfer of tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority — a step taken earlier this month in response to the PA’s joining the International Criminal Court — must not just be a temporary measure, as has been the case in the past.

“This time it needs to be clear that the money will be not returned until he is removed from the government in Ramallah,” he said. Liberman also expressed support to moves inside the US Congress calling for punitive measures against the Palestinian Authority because of its joining the ICC, including closing the Palestinian representation in Washington, and shutting off US funds.

”If we are speaking seriously about a diplomatic process, there is a need first and foremost to be rid of Abu Mazen [Abbas], and of course to eradicate the Hamas government in Gaza,” he said. “Anyone who talks about a diplomatic process being possible with Abu Mazen in Ramallah and Hamas in control of Gaza, it is all talk.”

Liberman said that after Abbas was gone and Hamas eradicated, there would then be a need to turn to the Quartet — who should then turn to the Jordanians and Egyptians — and decide how to run free elections inside the Palestinian Authority. Those elections, he added, should be held without the participation of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations, and without Fatah’s Marwan Barghouti, convicted of terrorism and sentenced to multiple life-sentences.

Liberman said that in looking to solve the Mideast conflict, it was necessary to recognize 22 years after the Oslo accords that the conflict is not between Israel and the Palestinians, “but between Jews and Arabs.”

As such, he said, any comprehensive accord must include agreements encompassing not only the Palestinians but also the Arab world and Israel’s Arabs.

During his comments, Liberman also attacked what he termed the rampant political correctness in Europe which he said ignored or downplayed the anti-Semitism in Europe.

Liberman, who was in Paris on Sunday during the massive anti-terror march, said that when he watched CNN’s coverage he was struck by its ignoring the “Jewish angle.”

He said that the network, when talking about the attack at the kosher grocery, did not not mention it belonged to Jews, or that the hostages and victims were Jews who were killed because they were Jewish.

“We need to speak honestly, without shame, and put everything on the table, because the basis for the murderous anti-Semitism is Islamic extremism on the one side, and the irrational lashing out against israel on the other,” he said.

In the same vein of speaking honestly, Liberman said “it is forbidden” for Israel to “compromise on the values of Zionism.”

In the midst of the swirling internal debate as to how far Israel should go in calling French Jews to immigrate following the Paris attacks, Liberman said “there is no such thing as Zionism without aliya. And it doesn’t make a difference if it is France, the Jews of russia, or the Jews of the US. We must talk about aliya, that is the meaning of Zionism, and we will not compromise.”