Fidan: Criminal Netanyahu must be stopped. He is harming Israel, too.

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his partners “must now be stopped.” Speaking at a press conference in Istanbul, Fidan said the following in response to a question about anti-Turkish rhetoric in Israel:

• “Netanyahu, who has become the common enemy of humanity, the international community and security—I underline this, Netanyahu himself, the murderer, the genocidaire—is not a person to be taken seriously at this point.

• “Not only for Türkiye but for global security, his mentality and the genocidal lot acting together with him pose a threat.

• “It would be a major mistake to think of this as a problem belonging only to Türkiye.

• “It is now necessary for the international community to fulfill the duty it has failed to fulfill until today and stop this murderer, this genocidaire, and prevent him from causing further harm to the region, Israel, the Jewish people and the entire world.

• “This murderer, who takes pleasure in spilling Palestinian and Muslim blood, must now be stopped.

• “He is opposed to the establishment of a Palestinian state. He wants the genocidal and occupationist approach, the approach that endangers regional security, to continue.

• “This is a threat not only to us, but to the entire region and the international community.

• “The international system must fight the Netanyahu threat.”

Targeting Netanyahu, not Israel this time

What is striking about Fidan’s harsh statement is that, rather than targeting the State of Israel itself, he directly targeted Netanyahu and his coalition partners, emphasizing that, alongside the Palestinians, the Jewish people are also being harmed. This also shows that Ankara will not back down in the face of Netanyahu’s policy of making Türkiye an enemy as Israel heads toward the October 27 elections.

Fidan made his strongly worded statement at a particularly significant moment for three reasons:

– On the night of August 30, Netanyahu said during a live broadcast on Israel’s Channel 14 television: “We must prevent the emergence of new rivals, such as Türkiye.”

– Just hours before Fidan made his statement, Israel signed a €3 billion arms deal with Greece in Tel Aviv. The Netanyahu-aligned Jerusalem Post reported it as a deal “against Türkiye and Iran.”

– Fidan made these remarks at a press conference following the first implementation meeting of the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement signed with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan on August 7. The meeting was held on August 31 with the participation of the foreign and defense ministers and chiefs of general staff.

Rising tensions in the region

The €3 billion deal under which Greece will purchase air-defense missiles and drone-defense systems from Israel is the largest single arms export deal Israel has ever made. It is part of Greece’s €28 billion “Achilles Shield” air-defense system, which Athens plans to complete by 2026. The F-35 aircraft Greece will receive from the United States, the Rafale aircraft it will purchase from France, and the warships it will acquire from France and Italy are also part of this buildup. Greece’s Kathimerini newspaper did not go as bluntly into the issue as the Jerusalem Post, but it too compares the investment with Türkiye’s military investments.

The Israeli elite’s desire to portray the arms-export deal with Greece as being “against Türkiye and Iran” is, at first glance, a form of psychological defense, particularly against the growing reaction in European public opinion to the ongoing persecution and massacres in Palestine.

The joint defense agreement Israel reached with Cyprus last December also appeared to be aimed at Türkiye, even though the parties did not officially acknowledge this. But Iran was not part of that equation.

Does Athens really want to put Tehran this squarely in its sights? This is a development that further increases regional tensions.

The US can stop Netanyahu; the message is to Trump

Fidan speaks of the international community and the international system, but in fact there is only one address for his words. That is Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu—and the only power capable of stopping Netanyahu and his coalition, as fragile as it is aggressive, namely US President Donald Trump.

Hours before Israel struck the Abu Zuhur airfield near Türkiye’s border, which was undergoing repair and construction, as a “message to Türkiye,” in Netanyahu’s words, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had called on Trump to “stop Israel.” A day earlier, he had said, “We do not want war, but we will not shy away from it.”

Fidan’s message, targeting not the State of Israel but Netanyahu, is almost a signal to the United States that “if Netanyahu goes, Türkiye-Israel relations can be normalized.”

As of today, Türkiye-Israel relations with Greece appear set to become a matter of interest to Iran as well.