COLUMNIST: TURKISH JEWS SHOULD PAY SPECIAL TAX TO REPAIR GAZA Reminiscent of centuries past when special taxes were levied on Jews, an article by Turkish columnist, Faruk Köse, published in Yeni Akit, a newspaper close to the Erdogan government, proposed that Turkish Jews and other Jews doing business in Turkey, pay a special tax to pay for damages in Gaza resulting from Israeli operation, “Protective Edge” launched to halt Hamas terror attacks. Failure to pay would lead to revocation of the Jew’s business license and the seizure of his property, Köse demanded.
Earlier, Köse penned an open letter to Turkey’s chief rabbi, Rav Isak Haleva, urging Erdogan to demand that the Jewish community apologize for Israel’s actions in Gaza. “You came here after being banished from Spain. You have lived comfortably among us for 500 years and gotten rich at our expense. Is this your gratitude – killing Muslims? Erdogan, demand that the community leader apologize!”
“If you come out with your ‘Jewish’ identity and start massacring my Muslim brothers … I will have earned the right to ask for the ‘an eye for an eye’ approach towards you,” Köse threatened. “The ‘Zionist/Jewish terror base’ that is Israel, continues to turn Gaza into hell with its genocide,” he wrote. “So of course one feels like saying, ‘God bless that Hitler!’”
Poisoning of attitudes against Israel and the Jewish people from the highest levels of government threaten the future of Turkey’s Jews, who were also stunned by a call from Edirne’s Governor, Dursun Sahin to bar Jews from worshiping at the historic Buyuk Synagogue. He later retracted after international protests.
The Wiesenthal Center maintains a travel advisory for Turkey. 
DEPUTY SPEAKER TO JEWS: ABANDON YOUR RELIGIOUS IDENTITY The Jerusalem Post reported that Björn Söder, Sweden Democrats Party politician declared in an interview, “Most [people] of Jewish origin who have become Swedes leave their Jewish identity,” and that it is important to distinguish between “citizenship and nationhood.” Lena Posner Körösi, of the Official Council of Jewish Communities in Sweden told The Guardian, Söder’s statements were “exactly like in 1930s Germany” and that they constitute, “good old right-wing anti- Semitism.”
Swedish Jews have been targets of hate crimes from Muslim extremists, but authorities have rarely, if ever, taken action against the perpetrators. The SWC issued a travel advisory for Malmö, Sweden’s third largest city because city officials have failed to protect their Jewish citizens and leading political figures have often justified anti-Jewish sentiment because of the Israel-Palestinian conflict. HUNGARIAN MAYOR HANGS ISRAELIS … IN EFFIGY Mayor Mihaly Zoltan Orosz, of Erpatek (eastern Hungary) hanged Israeli P.M. Benjamin Netanyahu and former President Shimon Peres in effigy at a public display in early August. He told reporters, “The Jewish Terror state,” was trying to annihilate the Palestinians and he opposed, “The efforts of Freemasons to rule the world.”
The sign hanging above the “body” of President Shimon Peres reads:
I am a war criminal, bastard genocider, that’s why I get my rightful punishment, death by hanging! I am going to my master, to Satan, because hellfire awaits me! – Simón Peresz Orosz has become a nationally known figure, making public appearances in “traditional” Hungarian attire (pictured) and calling himself a protector of traditional Hungarian values.
