The latest quarrel between the leaders of Turkey and Israel continued for a second day Wednesday as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan labeled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a "thief" and a "tyrant."
Speaking at an election campaign rally, Erdoğan called Netanyahu "the thief who heads Israel" in a reference to corruption allegations against the long-seated prime minister.
Erdoğan also criticized Israel's closure of a Jerusalem holy site Tuesday after Palestinian suspects hurled a firebomb at a police station.
"You are a tyrant," Erdoğan said, addressing Netanyahu at the rally. "You are a tyrant who slaughters 7-year-old Palestinian kids."
Netanyahu fired back on Twitter, describing the Turkish president as a "dictator who sends tens of thousands of political opponents to prison, commits genocide against the Kurds, and occupies Northern Cyprus."
Erdoğan, Netanyahu said, was preaching to him, "to Israel, and to the Israel Defense Forces about democracy and the ethics of war. A joke."
"It's best that he doesn't get involved with Jerusalem, our capital for 3,000 years," Netanyahu quipped. "Erdoğan can only learn from us how to respect every religion and protect human rights."
Netanyahu's son, Yair, also waded into the fray, tweeting: "I would also remind him [Erdoğan] of the genocides Turkey committed against the Greeks, the Assyrians, and the Armenians. They carried out ethnic cleansing against all the Christians in Asia Minor."
