Nearly half of western Europeans believe jews exploit their 'past persecution' in order to extort money, a new Israeli report says.

The report, which the Jewish Agency conducted jointly with Israel's Information and Diaspora Ministry, found that 42 percent of those polled by the University of Bielefeld in Germany agreed that "jews exploit the past to extort money," Haaretz reported on Monday.

The countries in which the highest percentage of the population agreed with that statement were Poland and Spain.

There were more anti-Israeli incidents in 2009 than in any year since World War II, according to the annual Jewish Agency report released January 24.

During the first three months of 2009, immediately following Israel's three-week offensive in the Gaza Strip, there were as many “anti-Semitic” incidents recorded as there had been for the entire year of 2008.

"With the start of the operation, a wave of acts of anti-Semitism started across the world," the report said, referring to last winter's Operation Cast Lead, during which over 1,400 Palestinians were killed.

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