Israel’s foreign ministry spokesman, Yigal Palmor, said Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s comments that Israel was behind the military coup that deposed Egypt’s Islamist President Mohamed Morsi last month ''did not merit a response.''
“This is a statement well worth not commenting on,” Palmor said.
In remarks made at a meeting of his Islamist AK Party and broadcast on Turkish television, Erdogan scolded Western democracies and Arab nations for failing to condemn the coup and blamed Israeli influence, saying ‘’we have evifdence. “What do they say in Egypt? ‘Democracy is not the ballot box,’” he said. “Who is behind this? Israel.”
Erdogan cited comments made two years ago by French philosopher and author Bernard-Henri Levy, who “is also Jewish,” as supposed proof of a longstanding Israeli plot to deny the Muslim Brotherhood power in Egypt, even if it won elections.
He was apparently referring to a video available on the Internet of a discussion on the Arab Spring held by Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Levy at Tel Aviv University. The video shows Levy saying: “If the Muslim Brotherhood arrives in Egypt, I will not say democracy wants it, so let democracy progress. Democracy is not only elections, it is also values.”
Asked as to whether he would urge Egypt’s military to intervene against the Muslim Brotherhood, the philosopher 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.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Erdogan’s comments were ‘’nonsense,’’while former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman described the Turkish Prime Minister as the successor to Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels.
Lieberman, who is the chairman of the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) foreign affairs and defense committee, said that "anyone who heard Erdogan's words, which were filled with hate and incitement, understands without any doubt that this is a continuation of the way of Goebbels."
"His plottings are along the lines of the Dreyfus Affair and the Elders of Zion," he added.
In Washingon, White House Spokesman Josh Earnest said the comments were "offensive and unsubstantiated and wrong."
Such statements only distract from the need for all countries in the region to work together constructively, he added.
Egypt's state news agency MENA said Erdogan's comments aimed ''to divide Egyptians.''
Earlier this year, Erdogan called Zionism "a crime against humanity" and two senior AK Party officials have suggested there was Jewish involvement in anti-government protests that rocked Turkey in May and June.