WASHINGTON (JTA) — A spokesman for Benjamin Netanyahu denied that the Israeli prime minister used the term "self-hating Jews" to describe two top aides to President Obama.
"The prime minister never spoke those words," Mark Regev told JTA on Wednesday in response to a reporter’s question.
The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz earlier this month published a story stating, without attribution, that Netanyahu called David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel "self-hating Jews."
The remark has since appeared in other publications, including a blog post by Joe Klein on the Time Magazine Web site and, on Tuesday, in a piece by Ha’aretz reporter Aluf Benn on The New York Times op-ed page.
