Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's support for Hamas and hostility toward Israel have reached a critical point, with Turkey providing sanctuary to Hamas operatives while the terror organization plans attacks against Israel. This situation demands a fundamental reassessment of Turkey's role in the international community and Israel's response.
"Let these places where you live and work be your new homeland," Erdogan once told Turkish migrants in Europe. "Claim ownership! Start more businesses, enroll your children in better schools. Move your families to better neighborhoods. Drive the best cars, buy the most beautiful houses, and have five children – not just three – because you are Europe's future."
This forgotten statement from the playbook of "quiet jihad" remains relevant today, as "Europe's future" in the form of many Turkish immigrants took part in anti-Jewish riots in Amsterdam last weekend.
In an era where Mohammed, in its various spellings, has become the most popular name for newborns in many European cities, and when the goal is to create Islamic visibility, identity, consciousness, and influence – another variant from the Turkish president's ideology is relevant this week.
Erdogan's second notable statement: "We must visit Al-Aqsa much more frequently. Turkey sends the highest number of tourists to Jerusalem among all Muslim countries, but far fewer than the hundreds of thousands of Americans, Russians, and French who visit the city and Al-Aqsa. Why shouldn't hundreds of thousands of us also visit Al-Quds? These visits would be the greatest support for our brothers there."
When it comes to Israel, Erdogan is several times more fanatical and obsessive, and quiet jihad is only part of the story. While significant legitimate funds from Turkey flow to the Negev, Jaffa, Lod, Ramla, Haifa and Jerusalem to create processes similar to those occurring in Europe, those who have helped the Turkish megalomaniac build this "dawa" apparatus over the years are his two local allies, both arch-inciters who glorify terror: Raed Salah, former head of the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, and former Jerusalem Mufti Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, who even justified suicide attacks against Jews.
Having analyzed Turkey's recent actions and Erdogan's increasingly hostile stance toward Israel, the international community, particularly the next US administration, must recognize Turkey's role in supporting terror organizations and take appropriate diplomatic and economic measures. Erdogan's congratulations to President-elect Donald Trump on his victory should remind the American president of Turkey's deceptive overtures to Israel just two years ago, including the meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which were part of a Turkish scheme. Erdogan then tried, through Israel, to find paths to America's heart and especially its wallet. The October 7 massacre and subsequent war tore away all masks. Now it's the free world's turn, assuming it still exists, to take a position and act regarding Erdogan and not let him make fools of us all again.
