President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Wednesday said that Israel’s “promised land delusions” were doomed to fail.
Calling Israel a “Zionist terrorist organization” over its genocidal war on Gaza, Erdoğan warned Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu would not stop at Palestinian territories and would set its sights on other regional countries, namely Türkiye.
The “Promised Land” is a foundational concept in Zionist ideology, corresponding roughly to modern-day Israel and parts of neighboring countries. According to extremist Zionist belief, it represents the land promised by God to them.
For centuries, this concept has held immense significance in shaping Zionist identity, serving as a spiritual and historical anchor. It has fueled aggressive actions by many Zionist followers, who have used it to justify the killing of civilians in and around Israel through attacks and airstrikes.
The emergence of Zionism in the late 19th century marked a pivotal moment in the pursuit of this ideal. Today, the Promised Land continues to influence Israeli society and politics, particularly in discussions about territorial claims and national identity. At the center of Gaza, it has become a focal point in Netanyahu’s speeches, motivating his Zionist base both at home and abroad.
The Israeli premier, since Oct. 7 last year, has often described the war on Gaza as a righteous effort and claimed Palestinian territories were “promised” to Israel, “the inheritors of land,” which he attempted to justify with quotes from the Torah.
In a brazen display, the Israeli premier at last month’s U.N. General Assembly procured a map titled “The Curse,” which marked a stretch of land from Lebanon to Iran’s easternmost borders and Syria’s northern strip bordering Türkiye in black.
The second map he showed did not identify the West Bank and the Gaza Strip but showed all the territory as part of Israel, which Palestinians view as a clear declaration of the annexation of the West Bank to Israel.
Holding the maps, Netanyahu said the world must choose between a “blessing” and a “curse.”
Speaking to lawmakers from his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in Parliament, Erdoğan said Türkiye is “aware where Israel’s expansionist policies will ultimately target” and assured: “Türkiye will never compromise its security. We have the strength to burst their bubble.”
Erdoğan repeated his criticism of Western powers, namely the United States, over the support given to Israel, which he called “hypocritical.”
“Israel has carried out the biggest genocide of the past century in Gaza. History will never forgive those who applauded Netanyahu, who has the blood of tens of thousands on his hands,” Erdoğan said, referring to the numerous standing ovations Netanyahu got during a visit to the U.S. Congress in July.
He also said the cross-border fire between Israel and Iran in recent days had heightened the risk of a regional conflict and called for increasing dialogue, noting: “Considering the atmosphere in our region, we believe that we need to talk more, we need reconciliation.”
Parliament was in a closed session on Tuesday to discuss the risk of war spreading across the Middle East.
Erdoğan, one of the most virulent critics of Israel, has repeatedly called for unity among Muslim countries, arguing the current conflict was not between Israel and Palestine but “a fight between expansionist Zionism and Muslims defending their homeland.”
Türkiye itself accelerated normalization processes with Islamic countries with whom ties were lukewarm or nonexistent as the conflict rages on, urging regional powers to take economic, diplomatic and political measures to pressure Tel Aviv into accepting a cease-fire.
Erdoğan repeated his praise of Palestinian resistance group Hamas as “freedom fighters” who he said are “also fighting for the honor of the Muslim world” in Gaza.
“We know they’re also fighting for Türkiye there,” he said.
Ankara maintains links with Hamas, which rules Gaza. Unlike some European countries and the U.S., Türkiye does not classify Hamas as a terrorist organization, insisting it’s a liberation movement defending itself.
Israel’s brutal onslaught in the Gaza Strip has hit its first anniversary, which began on Oct. 7 following Hamas’ incursion into southern Israel and has since spread to Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East.
In the past year alone, Israel’s bombing killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, and more than 700 others in the West Bank, which it has occupied since 1967.
The Israeli onslaught has displaced nearly the entire population of Gaza amid a blockade that has caused severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine.
Efforts by the U.S., Egypt and Qatar to mediate a cease-fire and facilitate a prisoner swap between Israel and Hamas have failed, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refusing to halt the offensive.
Israel is also facing a genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for its actions in Gaza.
