Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently increased tensions between his nation and Israel after stating in an interview with a British daily (during which he stated that the strategic alliance remains intact despite private words to the contrary by party MPs) that Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman threatened to bomb the occupied Palestinian territory of the Gaza Stripe with nuclear weapons during Israel’s most recent offense (which killed over 900 Palestinians civilians of whom over 400 were children).

The Israeli foreign ministry stated that Erdogen’s words are “nonsense.” Lieberman is one of the most hawkish and far-right Israeli ministers in the nation’s history. The head of an neo-fascist party - Israel Is Our Home - that explicitly attacks not just Palestinians in the occupied territories but also Arab citizens of Israel as an internal enemy. Lieberman ran on such a platform - “Only Lieberman Understand Arabic” (he doesn’t) - and is hostile to a peace agreement. In the past he has called for the bombing of Egypt’s Aswan Dam - an act that would kills millions of Egypt - in a hypothetical war with the nation (Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty 30 years ago this year), and his residence in an illegal West Bank settlement is a further provocation against the Palestinians.

Vulgar as he is, Lieberman is not stupid enough to admit to Israel’s so-called secret nuclear arsenal, however. Lieberman did not explicitly call for nuking Gaza but in so many words did just that. Speaking at a party rally as the war was coming to an end, Lieberman criticized ending the war and declared that “we must continue to fight Hamas just like the United States did with the Japanese in World War II”. Lieberman went on and stated that U.S. nuclear attacks against Japan had “broken the will” of the Japanese people.

Clearly, Erdogan’s words are not “nonsense” since Lieberman cited U.S. nuclear strikes against Japan as a precedent of how Israel should deal with Hamas and the Palestinians. Nuclear bombs are his guide and he made it clear it wanted them used against Hamas.

The only rebuttal the Lieberman has against Erdogan is that he made the comments will still a Knesset MP and not the foreign minister and thus he was not in a position to threaten but was opining. Nonetheless, these are his words and there is nothing to suggest he had changed his mind since taking up his new job.

Lieberman’s views and demeanor has made him persona non grata with nearly everyone.

And Turkish-Israeli relations do not look likely to survive if a Palestinian state isn’t established soon.