Feb. 7--PALM BEACH -- Over the last six weeks, Jews have been beaten, synagogues have been burned and numerous signs, placards and newspaper articles have equated Jews with Nazis, one of the nation's top bigot-fighters said Friday.

Since Israel's December invasion of the Gaza Strip, the hate has spilled to "every country, every city, every community," Abraham Foxman told fellow leaders of the Anti-Defamation League.

"It is not mere protest against Israeli policy; it's attacks on Jewish institutions," Foxman, the ADL's national director, said at the group's annual meeting at The Breakers hotel. "Jews are being singled out as responsible.

"I have never been so worried about the safety and well-being of diaspora Jewry as I am today."

His speech headlined a day that featured reports by Jewish leaders from France and Argentina on anti-Semitic acts in their countries. Gabriela Shalev, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, defended Israel's right to invade Gaza after years of being attacked by rockets from there.

James Cavanaugh, of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, told of attacks against other minorities in Tennessee and Alabama, where he works: neo-Nazis charged with conspiring to shoot black children, a Klan conspiracy to bomb Haitian immigrants and the firebombing of an Islamic center.

In his half-hour address, Foxman departed from most of his prepared, 4 1/2-page text. However, he asked his listeners to share it with others.

The text was laced with incident reports from a host of lands. Among them were a reported 220 incidents in the United Kingdom and 113 in France, all during the three weeks of fighting in Gaza. They included beatings, synagogue firebombings and graffiti such as "Jihad 4 Israel"; cartoons and articles in Arab publications with headlines such as "Zionist Holocaust against the Palestinians" and demonstration banners in Argentina equating Israel with Nazis.

Foxman also voiced alarm that leaders in Norway, Greece and Belgium have said nothing against what their citizens have done. He said a Dane of Palestinian descent shot two Israelis in Denmark, but the prime minister said nothing about the incident.

"We need to get every world leader to stand up and say no," Foxman said.

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