Turkey’s President Erdogan faces a new challenge from Islamists

THE CLAIM that Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has been too soft on Israel would surprise most observers. He is an outspoken defender of the Palestinians, and specifically of Hamas. Since the war in Gaza began seven months ago he has repeatedly accused Israel of genocide and called Binyamin Netanyahu, the country’s prime minister, a “butcher” and a war criminal. Some of Hamas’s leaders have found a haven in Turkey.