Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) National President Morton A. Klein and ZOA’s Director of Research & Special Projects Liz Berney, Esq. released the following statement:
ZOA strongly condemns Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan’s outrageous, libelous accusations against Israel and her supporters in the West yesterday; and Erdogan’s absurd and despicable claim that the Muslim Arab Hamas group is not a terror organization. Clearly Erdogan and Fidan are Jew-hating, Israel-haters.
Erdogan falsely accused Israel of perpetrating “murder and mental illness” and an “intentional massacre” in Gaza; condemned the West of “hypocrisy” and perpetrating “the massacre and the destruction taking place in Gaza” by “providing unlimited support for Israel”; and absurdly and insanely and antisemitically claimed, against all evidence and against any semblance of reason, that “Hamas is not a terrorist organization, it is a liberation group, ‘mujahideen’ [fighters for the Muslim faith] waging a battle to protect its lands and people.”
Similarly, Fidan said that an Israeli ground invasion would turn the violence there into a “massacre” and accused countries supporting Israel of being “accomplices” to Israel’s “crimes.” Erdogan also canceled a planned visit to Israel, using the pretext that Israeli PM Netanyahu “took advantage of our [Turkey’s] good intentions.”
ZOA praises and agrees with the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ response to Turkey: Muslim Arab “Hamas is a despicable terrorist organization worse than ISIS that brutally and intentionally murders babies, children, women and the elderly, takes civilians hostage, and uses its own people as human shields. Even the Turkish president’s attempt to defend the terrorist organization and his inciting words will not change the horrors that the whole world has seen and the unequivocal fact: Hamas = ISIS.”
ZOA National President Morton Klein also stated:
“After the unspeakable horrors perpetrated by Muslim Arab Hamas on innocent Jewish men, women, children and babies on October 7th, and decades of deadly terrorist attacks that Hamas has perpetrated on Jewish civilians since Hamas’ inception, it is utterly sickening for any world leader to defend Hamas, insanely claiming that Hamas is not a terror organization, or to blame Israel. The United States, the European Union, Australia, Canada, Egypt, Israel, Japan, the UK and the UAE all designate Hamas as a terrorist organization. The Hamas charter quotes the Hadith to the Muslim Koran calling for the murder of every Jew on earth (Article 7) and for the Jewish State of Israel’s destruction.
“Just eight months ago, when Turkey was hit with a major earthquake, Israel sent a rescue team to Turkey. The Israeli team rescued Turkish babies and many others from the rubble. Erdogan even gave the head of the Israeli rescue mission a certificate of appreciation for helping Turkey in its hour of need. How soon this disgusting ingrate Erdogan forgot!
“Israel rescues Muslim Turkish babies, while Hamas slaughters, tortures and beheads them.”
President Biden called Hamas “sheer evil”; stated that Hamas’ bloodthirstiness and brutality “brings to mind the worst rampages of ISIS”; and noted that Hamas’ “stated purpose is the annihilation of the State of Israel and the murder of Jewish people.” Virtually every U.S. Senator condemned Hamas’ atrocities. (See all Senators’ comments listed in “ZOA: Call Congress & Other Important Actions Against Hamas Arabs’ Nazi-Like Murders of Innocent Jews,” Oct. 8, 2023.)
Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said that Erdogan’s comments were “grave and disgusting.”
An EU motion for a resolution condemning Hamas’ October 7th “despicable terrorist acts” noted that “Hamas is an internationally recognized terrorist organization espousing extreme violence; . . . its principal stated goal is to annihilate Israel; . . . since its establishment it has been responsible for many suicide bombings and other deadly attacks on civilians and Israeli soldiers” . . . and among the most barbaric atrocities committed by hundreds of Palestinian terrorists against Israeli civilians and soldiers were the killing of parents in front of their children and children in front of their parents; beheadings, including of babies; the rape of women; torture, slaughter, torching to death; and the burning of houses and properties with people alive inside them.”
The EU motion also noted that “Hamas initially recorded its terrorist activities and atrocities and even streamed them online, but after drawing international condemnation it sought to deny having ever committed these crimes.” Further, “Hamas terrorists desecrated the bodies of murdered Israelis during mass celebrations of their invasion of Israel; [and] Hamas continues to indiscriminately fire hundreds of rockets daily at Israel, including at major cities and civilian areas, aiming at civilians while firing from within civilian crowds and infrastructure, both of which amount to war crimes.”