When, on October 7, the terrorist group Hamas launched a barbaric attack on Israel, killing more than 900 Israeli men, women and children (and wounding thousands more), Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, instead of his usual inflammatory anti-Israel rants, uncharacteristically advised restraint to both sides.

The rise of political Islam in Turkey in the past two decades, however, and Erdogan’s inherent anti-Zionism – he once called Zionism a crime against humanity – have apparently left an indelible mark on the Turkish psyche. In addition to his balanced, ostensibly unbiased, advice for restraint, Erdogan has also said that a Palestinian state is a requirement that cannot be delayed.

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Turkey’s top Muslim cleric, Professor Ali Erbaş, who answers directly to Erdogan, was less unbiased. Erbaş, president of Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), a government office that commands a budget more than 12 ministries combined, said that Israel should “withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territories,” adding that “we stand by the oppressed Palestinian people and the struggle for freedom of Al-Aqsa Mosque…”

Continue here: Gatestone Institute