Netanyahu: Erdogan calling for Israel’s destruction is taken ‘very seriously,’ we will alert US to remarks

By Nava Freiberg

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28 June 2026, 6:59 pm

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Nava Freiberg is The Times of Israel's deputy diplomatic correspondent.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, seen during a vote on the state budget in the Knesset, Jerusalem, March 29, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90); Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) during a meeting with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky (unseen) at Dolmabahce Presidential Office, in Istanbul. (TURKISH PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE / AFP)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned during today’s cabinet session that Israel takes Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rhetoric against the Jewish State “very seriously” and will draw US attention to it, according to Hebrew media reports confirmed to The Times of Israel by the premier’s office.

“Hardly a day goes by without Erdogan calling for the destruction of the State of Israel. We take those words very seriously, because if there is one thing we have learned from the history of our people, it is that when someone says they intend to destroy you, you should take them seriously,” the premier is quoted as saying.

“We will also draw the attention of our American friends to these remarks. We are not ignoring them,” he tells fellow cabinet members.

Erdogan and other senior Turkish officials have ramped up threats against Jerusalem recently, with Turkey’s interior minister calling earlier this month for the country to “liberate” Jerusalem.

Since the start of the war sparked by the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack, Erdogan has been one of the foreign leaders most harshly critical of Israel, accusing Jerusalem of genocide in Gaza, welcoming ICC arrest warrants for Israeli leaders, and calling on the UN to recommend the use of force against Israel.

Some Western and Israeli outlets reported that Erdogan called for God to destroy Israel during a prayer service marking the end of Ramadan in March 2025, saying: “May Allah, for the sake of his name… destroy and devastate Zionist Israel.”

US President Donald Trump, who often praises Erdogan, suggested last week that the latter could have entered the US-Israeli war against Iran in support of Tehran because he doesn’t like Israel, though Turkey gave no indication that it was preparing to enter the conflict.

Trump indicated on the same day that he was preparing a sale of weapons for Turkey ahead of an upcoming NATO summit there, including F-35 stealth fighters and dozens of jet engines — a prospect that has sparked concern in Jerusalem for months.