Katz hits back after Lapid says public criticism of Turkey unhelpful

Defense Minister Israel Katz defends the government’s public sparring with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after Opposition Leader Yair Lapid criticizes the decision to castigate Ankara as a pre-election ploy.

Speaking to Kan radio, Lapid said the leadership was correct to order strikes on airbase in northern Syria where Israel alleges that Turkish troops were preparing to establish a presence.

“In the Middle East, it’s important to carry out attacks when needed, but once you’ve attacked, be quiet,” he said. “What good is turning this into a public fight, when the Turks got the message with the strike?”

Lapid says messages following the attack could have been sent to Turkey quietly, but alleges the government wanted to score political points by loudly dunking on Ankara.

“Now, because they are elections, they have this outpouring of talking about it. What’s that good for?” he asks. “It’s heating up the exactly area we don’t need to be heated.”

In a tweet, Katz, without naming Lapid, slams those criticizing him and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for speaking out against Erdogan and Turkish entrenchment in Syria.

“It’s forbidden to anger Erdogan,” he writes, offering his imitation of critics, “as if we’re just on an evening stroll with a light breeze blowing through the treetops unconnected to anything, and Erdogan is really some lover of Zion.”

“It’s a good thing they don’t influence anything,” he adds of his critics.

Jerusalem and Ankara have come out strongly against each other in recent days, with Turkey re-issuing a genocide arrest warrant for Netanyahu and the premier’s office responding by saying that Erdogan “now seeks to extend his aggression against Israel into Syria” and calling him “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.”

Lapid says he agrees that Turkey is no friend of Israel, but says the government’s handling of Ankara is “irresponsible.”

“Turkey is a very problematic country,” he says. “[But] we don’t have any policy regarding Turkey aside from tweets.”

Lapid’s criticism comes after US envoy Tom Barrack said in an interview over the weekend that the Israeli strike could have been an attempt by Israel to “bait” Turkey into conflict ahead of the election.