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Saturday, June 5, 2010

[The following, by bataween, is crossposted from Point of No Return.]

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Anti-Israel demonstration in Istanbul (Ynet News)

A Turkish newspaper editor told the European Jewish Press on Wednesday that Turkey's Jewish community feared that the backlash over Israel's interception of aid ships headed for Gaza earlier this week would provoke antisemitism, according to Haaretz :

On Monday, Israeli navy commandos clashed with activists aboard a Turkish ship carrying aid to the blockaded Gaza. The clash resulted in the deaths of 9 activists as well as dozens of injuries, among activists and soldiers alike.

The editor of the Istanbul-based weekly Salom, Ivo Molinas, said Wednesday that "we are definitely worried, because [the anger in Turkey] can turn very easily to anti-Semitism."

"The rhetoric used by the Prime Minister [Recep Tayyip Erdogan] has been very radical," added Molinas, part of the 20,000-member Jewish community residing in Turkey.

Erdogan accused Israel at the Turkish parliament on Tuesday of a "bloody massacre" and declared "now Israel has shown to all the world how well it knows how to kill."

Turkey has recalled its ambassador and Erdogan, charging Israel with "state terrorism", has called for those responsible for the deaths to be punished.

Other activists, who have given harrowing accounts of their ordeal on the high seas, arrived in Istanbul on Thursday to a hero's welcome by thousands of cheering supporters.

"But the Prime Minister also said yesterday [Tuesday] that he was against anti-Semitism. He says it during each crisis but he repeated it yesterday," said Molinas, whose newspaper has a circulation of around 5,000...

Read article in full

Ynet News: Turkey's chief rabbi calls Israeli raid a provocation

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