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Spokesman denies Bibi’s ‘self-hating Jews’ remark

July 29, 2009

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.

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