Israeli Spox Denies Bibi Called Rahm And Axelrod “Self-Hating Jews” — Then Hangs Up
A spokesperson for the Israeli government is denying that Prime Minister Netanyahu called Obama aides Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod “self-hating Jews,” though he was rather colorful and abrupt about it, hanging up on our reporter after spitting out the denial.
Yesterday, Haaretz set off a minor stir by reporting that Netanyahu’s unbalanced mental state was leading him to regularly describe Emanuel and Axelrod in those harsh terms:
To appreciate the depth of his paranoia, it is enough to hear how he refers to Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod, Obama’s senior aides: as “self-hating Jews.”
We had our reporter, Amanda Erickson, contact Netanyahu spokesperson Mark Regev for comment. He denied the claim, saying: “I’ve never heard the prime minister use such language.”
Asked how it ended up in the paper, Regev brushed off the importance of the report, and snapped: “I’m at home with my family.” He then hung up.
Indeed, it’s interesting how hard it was to get a denial out of the Israeli government, perhaps because yesterday was a fasting day. The Israeli embassy in Washington tells us they worked all day yesterday trying to get a denial, but had no luck.
Now, however, the government is shooting down the claim. And thus is an international incident averted…
This blog’s homepage is here. RSS feed here. Twitter feed here. Email me here.
Oh no Greg. According to sbj, the message is already out there. The intent has already been achieved. Taking it off the air now or denying it was said only reinforces the stereotype of self hating jews.
To put things in perspective since I’m completely ignorant of Israeli affairs, what would be the U.S. equivalent of Haaretz in terms of publications and who would Bibi align himself closer to politically. Would he be more of a true conservative, a neo or some sort of libertarian type of politician?
Why is it that one can discuss, o, Nigeria and the government without being accused of racism, but you cannot say one damn thing about Israel without provoking all kind of accusations of anti-semitism? Is Israel a racial theocracy or what?
And sbj can stop the crusade now – Pelosi won, he lost. The consensus is that she is vindicated.
Um, “racial theocracy” is a colorful choice of words to put it politely….
Greg
That wasn’t a denial. The guy said HE hadn’t heard Bibi say it. He didn’t say unequivically that Bibi has never said it. Hell they know how to do politics speak in Israel too.
mike
Bibi would be a NeoCon. Hareetz would probably be a combination of the NYTimes and the WaPo. Pretty much they call it straight down the line. From what I can tell they actually seem to have more integrity than our MSM and aren’t afraid to call out the administration no matter who is in. I believe they were the ones who put up accounts of supposed war crimes committed during their military incursion into Gaza earlier this year from accounts of the actual soldiers who participated. I would give credence to their reporting.
“Um, “racial theocracy” is a colorful choice of words to put it politely…”
O great – I rest my case.
See what just happened?
Bibi is a clown. Yeah, “neocon” is an apt characterization.
OTOH, given the fractious state of Israeli politics (an understatement), if he ever comes to terms with reality, he’d be in a good position to make some progress on the peace front. Kinda like Menachem Begin, or Ariel Sharon (if he had lived), or Nixon to China.
More likely he’ll remain consumed by his cynicism and denial, and his friction with Obama and the USA will cause his government to collapse. Or maybe attack Iran in desperation (see: Begin into Lebanon just before an election where he was way down in the polls).
Mike suggests Haaretz has integrity because:
“I believe they were the ones who put up accounts of supposed war crimes committed during their military incursion into Gaza earlier this year from accounts of the actual soldiers who participated.”
Yet when it turned out that NO soldiers had participated
in the “war crimes” Haaretz REFUSED to print a retraction.
Haaretz most correctly should be called a mouthpiece
for the far-Left in Israel.
NOTE: No moral judgment is being expressed about the
value or worth of Haaretz as a source … just that it
is CONSISTENTLY far-left-of-center in expressing
Israeli opinion.
anon
Provide a source for your information that none of the soldiers committed war crimes because the UN would beg to differ.
http://www.reuters.com/article/middleeastCrisis/idUSLJ155314
One can understand that Bibi is under a great deal of stress right now. First, an American president dares to tell Israel to halt settlement expansion, then won’t back away from that position (the fact that it’s the right thing to do is neither here nor there). Then, Bibi can’t get congressional leaders to give the new president the old “don’t you know how this is suppose to work?” talk, because they’re supporting their president (and Obama is right on this).
The fact that Netanyahu is wrong on the settlement issue is irrelevant, it’s the fault of Obama’s self-hating Jew advisors.
*rolls eyes*
From the link to the UN statement on War Crimes in Gaza:
“On Monday, he is to present his report formally to the Human Rights Council, a 47-member forum where Islamic and African countries backed by China, Cuba and Russia have a majority…”
China, Russia and Cuba, eh? Not exactly setting the human rights bar very high, are we here?
Anon, I believe wrote that Israel was cleared of war crimes was wrong and misleading. The report he is referring to was an internal Israeli military report that it found no proof that it was policy of the government (which is a joke that has been shown to be a lie) but individual acts or mistakes. We haven’t heard that one before.
Hi,
so there left , centre, right, can someone just get THE TRUTH for heavens sake? is there any earnest effort to solve the real problems or are there spanners being thrown to blot out the much needed progress for peace in the middle east – who benefits here?
No matter which country the people on the human rights committee are from they are all jurists and international experts who should not be judged from the country of their births.
Every human rights group on the planet agree that Israel is a criminal state.
And Mark Regev grew up in Australia, I hope the thug never comes back.
Israel IS a Racist theocracy; everyone knows their religious texts say ONLY Jews are worthy (by the way, written by Jews). They call everyone else on the planet ‘cattle’.
This criminal arrogance in itself sets them against every other country, and the Muslims are exactly the same–How can the Creator/Architect/God endorse Racism, Lies, Murder, Genocide?
Neither of these ‘great’ religions is of God; they are both clever lies and their clash will eventually destroy all of us if we allow it
Anyone who has studied these 2 evil religions will know, this is why there will NEVER be peace between Jews and Muslims, regardless of any effort undertaken by the rest of the world.
>Indeed, it’s interesting how hard it was to get a denial out of the Israeli government, perhaps because yesterday was a fasting day.
The fact that anybody in the Israeli government would respond on Shiv’ah Asar Betammuz is surprising. Israel is a Jewish you need to deal with that.
Calling Israel a “racist theocracy” is an “intriguing” way to describe a country where the voters have political philosophies at least as diverse as ours, and probably more so.
Ryan: “Provide a source for your information that none of the soldiers committed war crimes because the UN would beg to differ.”
anon was simply correcting sgwhiteinfla’s (and Haaretz’s) claim that the reports were based on testimony from soldiers directly involved in the war crimes. As it turned out, the soldiers were simply reporting hearsay. This is all anon was saying, he didn’t say Israel has been cleared of all war crimes, forever and anon.
And everyone calling Israel a racist state, keep in mind that autocracies are great at hiding their defects, while democracies are great at exposing them. 75% of Israeli Arabs say they would stay put in Israel even after an independent Palestinian state is created. How many are willing to bet that the number of Uighurs and Tibetans who would say the same would be that high?
We should all remember that 2000 years ago all ancestors of todays, Christiand and Moslems were probably Jews also. Therefore if the right to the land of Palestine is going to be based on a lineage to our ancestors all memebers of the three great Religions have an equal claim.
“We should all remember that 2000 years ago all ancestors of todays, Christiand and Moslems were probably Jews also.”
Um, no. Mormonism branched off from Protestantism, which broke away from Catholicism. But if a Mongolian yak herder decides to become a Mormon, that does not mean his ancestors were Catholic.
jews were doing fine in spain till the christians took over. fortunately, the ottomans took them in.
oddjob:
The voters might have diverse political philosophies, but unless those ideas filter up to the government and affects a change in policy, the description of a ‘racist theocracy’ to describe the Israeli state is not far off.
Every day Arab countries routinely repress and brutalize their citizens — and instead you get all excited about playing “gotcha” with what is said by Israeli politicians.
re: “Calling Israel a “racist theocracy” is an “intriguing” way to describe a country where the voters have political philosophies at least as diverse as ours, and probably more so.”
I believe that Tena was trying to express a point about the sensitivities of certain people in the USA to any remarks which could in any fashion be construed as critical of Israel. I think the characterization was refreshingly colorful. Too bad we can’t have an honest discussion about the belligerent policies of the Israel government without being labelled as anti-semite, but there you are. In europe, people are privately outraged by Israeli treatment of the prisoners in Gaza, but their governments suffocate any public discussion out of fear of being labelled – you guessed it – anti-semitic.