Erdogan Calls Zionism Genocidal, Netanyahu Calls Him an Antisemitic Dictator as Turkey Seeks His Arrest

Turkey and Israel are in the middle of their ugliest public fight in years. It involves a real legal case, a real airstrike, and a real election bearing down on Benjamin Netanyahu.

The legal case

On July 14, 2026, Istanbul's 11th High Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and an Israeli official named Afek Moskovitch, according to Turkish Justice Minister Akin Gurlek. The case names 35 defendants and stems from Israel's interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla, a group of ships trying to deliver aid to Gaza, in international waters.

Turkish prosecutors are charging Netanyahu and Moskovitch with genocide, crimes against humanity, aggravated deprivation of liberty, torture, property damage, aggravated robbery and hijacking of transport vehicles, per The Media Line. On August 22, Gurlek announced Turkey had asked Interpol to issue Red Notices for both men, forwarding documents to Turkey's Interior and Foreign Ministries.

These are allegations from a domestic Turkish court, not a ruling from the ICC or any international tribunal. No international body has charged Netanyahu with anything in connection with this incident, and Interpol has not said whether it will act on Ankara's request.

The airstrike

Days before the Interpol request became public, Israeli jets struck the Abu al-Duhur airbase in northern Syria, near Aleppo, according to CNN and CTV News. Syria accused Israel of bombing the site on August 18. Netanyahu tacitly acknowledged the strike and said Turkey was looking to establish a military presence there. Turkey denied having any military presence at the base and said it would keep supporting Syrian sovereignty, per CTV News.

An Israeli military source told CNN that the IDF had gathered intelligence on Turkish plans to deploy personnel, drones and air-defense systems at the site, which Israel worried could restrict its freedom to operate in Syrian airspace. That intelligence was reportedly shared with the Trump administration and Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa. Mossad chief Roman Goffman met Syria's foreign minister in Jordan afterward to try to cool things down.

Tom Barrack, the Trump administration's envoy to Syria and ambassador to Turkey, called the strike an "unnecessary escalation" and floated what he called a "theory" to podcaster Mario Nawfal: that Israel was trying to bait Turkey in a move that "might play well going into elections." Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz maintain the strike was purely operational, based on intelligence about an active Turkish buildup. CNN did not report any evidence settling which account is correct, and both are on the record.

The war of words

On August 21 or 22, after the Interpol request became public, Netanyahu's office called Erdogan an "antisemitic dictator who has massacred Kurds, harbors Hamas terrorists, occupies half of Cyprus, and jails record numbers of journalists and politicians who oppose him," according to the Times of India and The Media Line. The statement said Erdogan was trying to "extend his aggression against Israel into Syria" and that "Israel will not tolerate it."

On Friday, August 28, Erdogan escalated further. He called Zionism a "genocidal ideology," compared Israel's public diplomacy to Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels' machinery, and invoked Hitler and Pol Pot, according to Ground News and Ynet. He said "the genocide network has turned Gaza into the world's largest cemetery for children."

Israel's Foreign Ministry responded Saturday, accusing Erdogan of "antisemitic incitement" and using "false blood libels" to distract from his own government's record, per Ynet. Erdogan's spokesman, Burhanettin Duran, shot back that Israel was hiding behind antisemitism accusations to obscure "aggression, genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity." Turkey's Foreign Ministry issued yet another statement overnight into Sunday rejecting Israel's response.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's working definition of antisemitism lists comparing Israeli policy to Nazi conduct as potentially antisemitic, a point Ground News flagged in its coverage. Whether that framework should apply to wartime political rhetoric between heads of state is itself a live debate that these sources don't resolve, but it's a real institutional standard Erdogan's comments run up against.

Turkey's core argument, that Israel's military campaign in Gaza has caused mass civilian death and amounts to genocide, is a serious charge. It is also, as of today, an unproven allegation before a Turkish domestic court, not a finding by the ICC, the ICJ, or any body with jurisdiction over Israel. Israel's counter-charges against Erdogan, jailing journalists, harboring Hamas, invading Kurdish areas, are likewise characterizations from Netanyahu's office rather than adjudicated findings, even where some underlying facts, like Turkey's incarceration of journalists and military operations against Kurdish forces, are well documented elsewhere.

What's unresolved

CNN reports Israeli elections are roughly two months out from its reporting, and Netanyahu has already put Erdogan on a campaign billboard alongside Iran's supreme leader, Hezbollah, and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani under the slogan "They want Netanyahu to lose. Don't let them win." Whether the Abu al-Duhur strike and the Turkey feud become defining issues in that race, whether Interpol acts on Ankara's Red Notice request, and whether Goffman's talks with Syria's foreign minister in Jordan hold the Syrian front steady, are all open questions with no resolution yet in the public record.