Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi warned visiting U.S. senators to beware the Jews who control U.S. media, The Cable blog reported.
The report indicated that a group of seven senators, led by John McCain, met with Morsi last week and urged him to distance himself from remarks he made in 2010, when he referred to Jews as “apes and pigs.” The remarks were exposed in a video distributed by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
One of the senators, Chris Coons of Delaware, told The Cable that while Morsi was trying to explain himself, he said, “‘Well, I think we all know that the media in the United States has made a big deal of this and we know the media of the United States is controlled by certain forces and they don’t view me favorably.’”
The Cable asked Coons if Morsi specifically named the Jews as the forces that control the U.S. media. Coons said all the senators believed the implication was obvious.
“He did not say [the Jews], but I watched as the other senators physically recoiled, as did I,” Coons told The Cable. “I thought it was impossible to draw any other conclusion.”
He added, “The meeting then took a very sharp negative turn for some time. It really threatened to cause the entire meeting to come apart so that we could not continue.”
Morsi claimed last week that his virulent anti-Semitic comments were taken out of context.
“The president stressed they were taken from comments on the Israeli aggression against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and stressed the need to put the remarks in the right context,” said a statement from Morsi’s office.
Morsi “stressed his commitment to the principles he has always insisted on, including full respect for religions, freedom of faith and religious practices, especially the heavenly religions.”
He also “stressed the need to differentiate between Judaism and its adherents from (those who practice) violent actions against Palestinians.”
MEMRI has since released another video in which Morsi is seen calling for Arabs to raise their children on hatred of Jews.