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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he hopes his country will not end up in a direct confrontation with Türkiye, weeks after he called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a “tyrant” at the UN General Assembly.
Speaking as he outlined an updated national security doctrine, Netanyahu said preventing such a confrontation is what he is trying to do. “Without naming any particular country, we are taking all possibilities into account,” he said.
The remarks come as U.S. President Donald Trump endorsed Netanyahu on Sunday, nine days before Israel’s October 27 parliamentary election.
Netanyahu’s tone differed sharply from his September 24 address to the 81st session of the General Assembly in New York, a roughly 40-minute speech covering Iran, Hamas, Gaza and Israel’s ties with Washington.
Dozens of delegations walked out as he spoke. “If there are any other cowards, let them leave now,” he said, according to reports, and those who stayed applauded.
He called Türkiye the “latest country to become a super spreader of antisemitic lies” and said Erdogan hosts Hamas leaders and jails journalists and opposition figures.
He also accused the Turkish leader of expansionism, citing Türkiye’s military presence in northern Cyprus and its disputes with Greece. Hours earlier, he had met Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on the sidelines of the assembly.
Türkiye rejected the remarks. Burhanettin Duran, the presidency’s communications director, said using the UN platform for “baseless accusations” was incompatible with the ideals of peace, law and dialogue.
He pointed to the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against Netanyahu and said the Israeli leader could not hide “his massacres” in Gaza.
A Turkish diplomat later used the right of reply at the assembly to reject the claims as malicious.
Trump posted a “Complete and Total Endorsement” of Netanyahu on Truth Social, addressed to the people of Israel.
He called him “a Great Warrior Prime Minister, and an even greater Partner for Peace” in confronting Iran.
He also said that if Israel has “the wrong Leader,” the United States “will have to do this work ourselves, and I am not inclined to do so.”
Trump again threatened to “soon finish the job” against Iran unless Tehran changes course, but suggested he might not want to if Netanyahu loses. Netanyahu thanked him on X, writing: “Together we will complete the mission!”
The endorsement had been withheld for months.
Days earlier, Trump told Newsmax “I don’t trust anybody,” and earlier this month he told Time he was “not involved in politics anymore” and did not “hear bad things” about Netanyahu’s rival Gadi Eisenkot.
Polls show a tight race in Israel’s first election since the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023, and Reuters reported that Trump’s backing is not certain to help, as Israeli support for him has diminished amid disagreements over Iran.
In February, Netanyahu told graduating officers that Israel was moving from deterrence and containment toward sustained preemptive action, with permanent buffer zones along its borders. I
n July, he told Fox News that Türkiye posed a threat to NATO and urged Washington not to sell it F-35 fighter jets.
Turkish media reported that after an Israeli strike on a Syrian air base, he said Israel had decided to create a security zone in Syria. Some analysts argue that framing Türkiye as a security challenge also serves his domestic campaign.
Israel and Türkiye once maintained substantial ties, but relations have deteriorated sharply since the Gaza war began in October 2023.
Türkiye, a NATO member, has been among the most vocal critics of Israeli military operations and maintains contacts with Hamas, which Israel rejects.
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