Avigdor Liberman calls Turkey’s Erdogan ‘an anti-Semitic, neighborhood bully’
Europe’s silence in the face of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s vitriolic attacks against Israel is one of the reasons for the surge of anti-Semitism in Europe, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said Wednesday.
In some of the toughest public comments in memory against Erdogan and Turkey, Liberman told a gathering of Israel’s ambassadors to Euro-Asia that Europe’s Ignoring the hate and incitement Erdogan cultivates toward Israel has ramifications.
“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 head Mahmoud Abbas, who he accused of waging “diplomatic terror” against Israel.