CBNNews.com - JERUSALEM, Israel - A recently released Jewish Agency report attributed a 300 percent rise in anti-Semitic attacks in January 2009, compared with January 2008, to Israel's three-week operation in the Gaza Strip.

According to the report, there were 250 anti-Semitic acts in Europe and the United States this January, compared with 80 last year.

Synagogues in Strasbourg and in the suburbs of Paris were fire-bombed and a young Jew attacked and stabbed. In Toulouse, thugs drove a burning car into a synagogue's gates.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon noted the huge amount of hate-filled blogs, many calling for attacks against Israel.

Fillon said French courts are poised to prosecute any citizens committing hate crimes in reaction to the war in Gaza.

There were numerous other incidences of firebombing and defacing of synagogues and Jewish community centers throughout the United States and Europe.

Source: Haaretz