PARIS (AP) -- The Catholic Church on Wednesday urged those responsible for a wave of anti-Semitic attacks not to use France as a battleground for rising tensions in the Middle East.
``Even if the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians has taken a dramatic turn recently, it does not authorize this rise of intolerance in France,'' Jean-Pierre Ricard, president of the Conference of French Bishops said in a statement Wednesday. ``A true social peace is at stake.''
The comments came after two assailants brazenly hurled gasoline bombs at the Merlan Synagogue in Marseille late Tuesday even as it was under police guard. The incendiary devices landed only a few yards from the officers, but no one was injured and the synagogue was not damaged. The two assailants fled.
The government has condemned what it called a wave of anti-Semitic violence and stepped up police surveillance of Jewish religious sites. Those deemed the most sensitive, such as large synagogues, have 24-hour police watch.
But Prime Minister Lionel Jospin admitted Tuesday that it was ``extremely difficult'' to guarantee permanent security at all the sites frequented by the Jewish community.
On Sunday in Marseille, the Or Aviv synagogue was burned to the ground. Jospin noted that it was patrolled by police just an hour before the attack.
Jewish leaders have welcomed the increased police presence but have criticized the inability to find those responsible.
No groups have claimed responsibility for the attacks, which have come late at night and spared victims.
On Tuesday, arsonists struck a pavilion in a Jewish cemetery in Schiltigheim in eastern France. The roof collapsed and the entranceway was destroyed. A flammable liquid was also thrown on the walls of a local synagogue, police said.
In what appeared to be a direct response, pro-Israeli slogans were later sprayed across the windows of an Arab-owned photocopy shop in nearby Strasbourg, officials said. ``Warning: Israel will win'' read one message signed by Betar, a Zionist youth group.
``Passions that flare up in the Middle East must not flare up here,'' Jospin said. ``Even if we have the largest Jewish community in Europe and one of the largest Arab-Muslim communities on the European continent, we must not import this violence.''
Islam is the second-largest religion in France after Roman Catholicism. France also has the largest Jewish community in Europe, with some 600,000 Jews.
In other signs that Mideast tensions are spreading through Europe, two gasoline bombs were thrown at a synagogue in the Belgian city of Antwerp early Wednesday, officials said. It was the second such arson attack against a Jewish institution in Belgium this week.
The attack resulted in a broken window but no fire inside the building, said Dominique Reyniers from the Antwerp prosecutor's office. The firebombs burned themselves out on the street.
German police said they were investigating an assault on two young Orthodox Jews from New York in downtown Berlin on Sunday night.
The two 21-year-olds said they were asked whether they were Jewish by a group of seven or eight youths, and one of the Americans was attacked when he answered yes, police said. The victim, who was not identified by police, was beaten and kicked to the floor. He was treated in hospital for facial injuries.