By Tara Suter,
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) said Turkey is becoming “The Squad” of NATO in Saturday comments, referring to an informal group of House Democrats.
“Seems that Turkey, particularly senior leadership, is setting itself up to be ‘The Squad’ of NATO,” Graham said in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Very disappointing and destabilizing.”
Graham’s post also linked to a Fox News article on recent comments made by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the Israel-Hamas conflict.
“Israel has been openly committing war crimes for 22 days, but the Western leaders cannot even call on Israel for a cease-fire, let alone react to it,” Erdogan told a crowd in Istanbul on Saturday, according to the Associated Press (AP).
“We will tell the whole world that Israel is a war criminal,” he added. “We are making preparations for this. We will declare Israel a war criminal.”
Israel said it is recalling its diplomats from Turkey Saturday in the wake of Erdoğan’s comments.
“Given the grave statements coming from Turkey, I have ordered the return of diplomatic representatives there in order to conduct a reevaluation of the relations between Israel and Turkey,” Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said in a post on X.
Graham’s post appeared to take a dig at the group of progressive lawmakers that includes Reps. Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Cori Bush (Mo.), Jamal Bowman (N.Y.) and Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), some of who have been recently vocal about their pro-Palestinian stances on the Israel-Hamas war.
“Two million people. Half children. Starved. Bombed. Cut from communication,” Ocasio-Cortez posted to X Saturday, appearing to reference the current situation in the Gaza Strip. “Have those facilitating this thought much about the future this leaves us? No. Some may dismiss a ceasefire as naïve or worse. Yet who has a plan for what follows this destruction? What do we call that?”
