Liberman: Turkish PM Erdogan is Nazi propagandist Goebbels' successor
Yisrael Beytenu MK fires reaction to Erdogan's charge that Israel was behind downfall of Morsi in Egypt.
By HERB KEINONAvigdor Liberman 370(photo credit: reuters)
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's hateful and incitement filled words against Israel is reminiscent of Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, Yisrael Beytenu MK Avigdor Liberman said Wednesday.Liberman, currently the head of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and former foreign minister, spurned the restraint demonstrated by the Prime Minister's Office and the Foreign Ministry toward Erdogan's charge Tuesday that Israel was behind the downfall of deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi."Everyone who heard Erdogan's words full of hate and incitement understand without a doubt that we are talking about the successor to Goebbels" the Dreyfus trial, and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, he said.Liberman, who opposed any type of apology to Turkey over the 2010 Mavi Marmara affair, said that those who "attacked" him and his party for that position should "draw the conclusions and do some soul searching."Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu apologized to Erdgoan in March – at US President Barack Obama's behest – for operational errors that may have led to loss of life on the ship that tried to break the naval blockade of Gaza in 2010.Liberman's comments came during a tour in Arad. Erdogan, speaking at a meeting of his AK Party in Ankara on Tuesday referred to the developments in Egypt and said, “Who is behind [Morsi's ouster]? There is Israel. We have [a] document in our hands.”The document, it emerged, was a video of a discussion held at Tel AvivUniversity on the Arab Spring in June 2011 between Tzipi Livni, then the head of the opposition and today the Justice Minister, and French-Jewish intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy.Lévy, during the symposium, said, “If the Muslim Brotherhood arrives in Egypt, I will not say democracy wants it, so let democracy progress. Of course not. Democracy, again, is not only elections, it is also values.”Lévy said Hamas’s takeover of Gaza “was [a] putsch, a coup; a democratic coup, but a coup. Hitler in 1933 was a coup; a democratic coup, but a coup.”
Asked by the moderator, former New York Times Jerusalem correspondentEthan Bronner, whether he would urge Egypt’s military to intervene against the Muslim Brotherhood if they would win a legitimate election, Lévy said: “I will urge the prevention of them coming to power, but by all sorts of means.”Citing this discussion, Erdogan said, “‘The Muslim Brotherhood will not be in power even if they win the elections, because democracy is not the ballot box.’ This is what they said at that time.”Both the US and Egypt condemned Erdogan's words. Liberman also called on the EU to condemn Erdogan for his words.Turkey's Hurriyet Daily News reported on its web-site Wednesday that the state run Anadolu news agency removed a story that cited sources in Erdogan's office confirming that his comments referred to the symposium.A video of that symposium is available online.Gil Hoffman contributed to this report
