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Erdogan’s Anti-Israel Remarks Reflect Broader Anti-Semitism in Turkey

While anti-Semitism has been present in Turkey since the 1930s, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's latest anti-Israel remarks bring Turkey's long-standing xenophobia out in the open.
Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan gestures as he gives a speech during a meeting at his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) party headquarters in Ankara, on August 20, 2013. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Israel on August 20 of being behind the military-backed ouster of Egypt's Islamist president Mohamed Morsi last month.  AFP PHOTO / ADEM ALTAN        (Photo credit should read ADEM ALTAN/AFP/Getty Images)
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A famous Turkic figure blasts Jews and Israel for their pernicious influence around the world. Americans respond in shock. Those who know the story are — somewhat nervously — giggling because they have seen it before. Our hero is not Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat, but Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who just blamed Israel for orchestrating the July 3 coup in Egypt.

Erdogan’s evidence to prove his claim about the Israeli influence in the Egyptian coup is not a very strong one: it is a video of French author Bernard-Henri Levy attending a talk at Tel Aviv University (TAU) in June 2011 together with Tzipi Livni, who was an opposition deputy at the time and is currently the justice minister of Israel. When asked whether he would support a coup if the Muslim Brotherhood wins the elections in Egypt, Levy unapologetically responds in the affirmative. In the short video, Livni only nods her head but it is not clear whether she endorses the Frenchman’s views on a coup or his statement that “democracy is not only elections — it is values. You have to have the two.” (The 90-minute talk is available from TAU’s YouTube account.)

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