Anti-Semitism was also blatant during a campaign against an Israeli financier, Sammy Ofer, who had planned to invest with a Turkish partner in rehabilitating Istanbul's historic Galata district and its port near theGoldenHorn.
And, yet, a few streets down from the tourist icon of Galata Tower, ancient alleys tumble down to theGoldenHorn in a decayed and unlit grandiosity, untouched, it would seem, since about 1840 such is Istanbul's gift for mad contradiction.