Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he regrets statements he made last week during his country’s elections, when he warned that “Arabs are voting in droves” in an attempt to get his supporters to vote.
“I know that the things I said a few days ago hurt some citizens in Israel, the Arab Israeli citizens,” Netanyahu said in a meeting with Arab community leaders, according to The Jerusalem Post.
“This was not my intention and I am sorry,” he said, adding that he sees himself as prime minister of every Israeli, regardless of religion, race or sex.
President Barack Obama ripped Netanyahu’s remarks in an interview with The Huffington Post published over the weekend, calling it “rhetoric … contrary to the best of Israel’s traditions.”
Netanyahu’s post on Facebook last Tuesday told his followers that “funding from foreign governments to get more Israeli Arabs to vote worked, which means all right-wing voters must make sure to go to the polls,” according to a translation from The Jerusalem Post.
Source: www.politico.com
