Terror Massacre in Turkey: MK Calls on Jews to Come Home

Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom is in Turkey today to meet with Jewish community leaders and his counterpart Abdullah Gul, following a day of terror in Istanbul. The toll from yesterday's twin car bomb attacks outside two Istanbul synagogues stands at 23, including six Jews, and over 300 wounded. "The attack scenes are even more horrendous than they appear on television," Shalom said today. "The terrorists' purpose is to attack all those whose values are those of freedom and democracy."



The two car bombs went off within minutes of each other around 9:30 in the morning, as Sabbath morning services were underway. The targeted synagogues, about five kilometers apart, were N'vei Shalom, the city's largest, in which Aharon Cohen was celebrating his Bar Mitzvah, and the Beth Israel synagogue. Menachem Landau, who once headed the Shabak's European department, said that the only security measure he would recommend adding to those currently being taken is to close streets that house synagogues while prayer services are underway. Another former GSS official, Likud MK Ehud Yatom, agreed that this measure is necessary. "I call upon the Turkish authorities," he told Arutz-7 today, "to take this simple step, and I am sure that Jewish institutions all over the world will now take this measure as well."



Turkish media report that two men and a woman have been arrested, and that two Islamic organizations have taken responsibility. One of them is the Islamic Front of the Great East, and the other, heretofore unknown, is the Islamic Infiltrators Front. They are assumed to have been working with Al-Qaeda.



The Jewish community in Turkey released the names of the six murdered Jews:

Anna Rubenstein, 85, and her granddaughter Annette, 8

Berta Ozdogen, 28, in her fourth month of pregnancy

Yonah Romano, 55, who suffered a fatal heart attack as a result of the blast

Avraham Verol, 40

Yoel Cohen Olcher, 20, a security guard



Seventy of the wounded are still hospitalized, including three - all Jews - in serious condition. Many Israelis have traveled to Turkey: Mossad and Shabak representatives, Zaka emergency team members, and relatives of the victims. A large funeral for all six victims is planned for Tuesday. Zaka volunteers report that the burnt Torah scrolls and prayer books will be buried in a traditional "funeral" as well. At least one Torah scroll, which was being used by the Bar Mitzvah boy, was heroically saved by the rabbi of N'vei Shalom.



The Turkish Jewish community numbers some 20,000. Each year, 300,000 Israelis visit Turkey, which is less than an hour's flight away.



At least 30 other Jews, including the Israeli Consul-General and the manager of the El Al office, have been killed in at least nine other terrorist attacks in Turkey over the past three decades. The N'vei Shalom Synagogue was hit in September 1986 when two Abu Nidal terrorists entered, towards the end of the Sabbath services, spraying fire and grenades in every direction. They murdered 22 Jews, including two Israelis.



MK Gila Finkelstein (National Religious Party) said, "The grave events that occurred in Turkey, just as other similar acts against Jews wherever they are ... are just another reminder that there is only one place for Jews under the sun, and that is in the State of Israel. We must do everything in order to bring massive Aliyah [Jewish immigration] to Israel."