Fox News reports that, amid a NATO summit in Ankara dominated by Iran, Ukraine and defence spending, Turkish leaders have drawn criticism for what detractors describe as increasingly antisemitic rhetoric towards Israel. The row matters because it marks a further deterioration in already strained relations between the two nations, with a public war of words now escalating between senior Turkish and Israeli officials.

The dispute centres on a 2 July interview in which Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan reportedly said Israel had "become a burden that humanity can no longer bear" and called it representative of "humanity's common problems", urging other countries to pressure the Jewish state. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar condemned the remarks as "a clear call for genocide" and likened them to language used "about 100 years ago", warning that dehumanisation is the first step towards genocide. Sinan Ciddi of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies called Fidan's words some of the "vilest rhetoric" from any statesman since the Holocaust, tracing Turkey's hardening stance to 2008 under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and a sharp escalation after 7 October. The article notes Erdoğan has himself condemned antisemitism in remarks to religious minority representatives.