By Ari Soffer and my Turkish friend

Even amid reports that Israel and Turkey are close to “normalizing” relations again, it appears that the long-term impact of years of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic incitement since the souring of relations in 2010 will be far more difficult to roll back.

Arutz Sheva has seen an email by a Turkish Jewish businessman, relating a harrowing anti-Semitic attack on him and his partner in the northwestern Turkish town of Babaeski, in the country’s Marmara district, once again highlighting fears for the future of Turkey’s 15,000-strong Jewish minority.

The two men – who requested anonymity – were visiting clients in the Thrace Region, when they stopped off in the town for a lunch break. But upon making their orders at a local restaurant, they were in for a nasty shock.

“We gave our orders at a fish restaurant, but the owner of the restaurant realized that we are Jewish,” the email related.

“After he made it clear that he won’t serve food to Jews, he started to insult Jews, the Jewish religion. He finally lost his control and marched over two of us with a dangerous tool.”

Arutz Sheva has learned from a friend of the victim that the “tool” in question was in fact a doner blade – a large, sword-like implement for cutting meat. He said passersby did nothing to intervene.

Faced with such sudden and extreme violence, the two men had little choice but to flee.

“We could not defend ourselves at all, we just ran away from this anti-Semitic man. We ran for our lives. Experiencing an event like that affected us so much.”

He said he felt a duty to share story with others, and said he and his partner were lucky to make it out in one piece.

“Thank God we are safe at home now,” he said.

More here.