using target="_blank" in menu link ?

Hi,

When I go to Appearance->Menus and use the Links section to create a menu item, I can enter
http://example.com
and it renders as
<a href="http://example.com"></a>

I would like the link to open in a new tab and thus need to add the attribute
target="_blank".
But no matter how I try to add it, WP renders a link that resolves erroneusly.

For instance, I would think that entering
https://example.com" target="_blank or
https://example.com"%20target="_blank (I use the htmlentity & quot ;, not the ” but the forum converts it when I write it in my post)
instead of simply the URL, would be renderded by WP as follows
<a href="http://example.com" target="_blank">.

But the HTML rendered looks like this and the link does not work at all
<a href="https://example.com"%20target="_blank"></a> Here the HTML rendered renders the two middle ” as I enter them as HTML entity code and the first and last as “. Weird.

I dont understand why this does not work, or the different interpretation of ” and the HTMLentity & quot ;.

Does anyone have a clue how to open a link in a new tab from a menu link?

(If I type ” instead of the ” when entering my string the quoatation marks bet stripped away when I save the menu.)