A US Jewish group is urging the government of France to "exercise its responsibilities under international law" following the arrest of two Palestinian terrorists at a French-protected hospital in Bethlehem.

On Tuesday, Adnan Abiat and Ratan Ali Hasan Nabhan, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade members who, according to Israel, hid in the hospital for months and are responsible for the murder of eight Israelis, were arrested at the Holy Family Maternity Hospital in Bethlehem, which is operated by the French Association of the Order of Malta. A weapons cache found on hospital premises was also seized.

While France has long been critical of Israel's counter-terror efforts and questioned its adherence to international law, officials at the American Jewish Congress's Council for World Jewry said that the arrests – and the French government's silence on the issue - highlight France's refusal to practice what it preaches...

Several books were recently rubberstamped with anti-Semitic inscriptions at the main public library in Paris, library director Gerard Grunberg revealed Thursday.

"The worrying tide of anti-Semitism and incitation to racial hatred one is noticing in French society is also permeating within the walls of the library. Books were covered with anti-Semitic inscriptions and addresses of websites denying the reality of the Holocaust," the director of the Bibliotheque Publique d'Information (BPI) at the Pompidou Center in Paris said.

"Needless to say," added Grunberg, "we lodged a complaint and we shall do our very best to identify and prosecute the culprits."

A dozen books about the Dreyfus case and legal issues were vandalized. They were rubberstamped on their edge with the words "Against the Jewish Mafia and Jewish Racism" followed by the addresses of a Holocaust denying website and of an Islamic propaganda website.