Rahm Emanuel apologizes for father's disparaging remarks about Arabs

By Reuters

Tags: Israel News, Rahm Emanuel

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel apologized to an Arab-American group on Thursday for comments disparaging Arabs made by his father.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee sent a letter to Emanuel calling on him to distance himself from remarks made by the elder Emanuel in an interview with an Israeli newspaper following his son's appointment last week.

"Today, Rep. Emanuel called Mary Rose Oakar, president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, apologized on behalf of his family and offered to meet with representatives of the Arab-American community at an appropriate time in the future," a statement from his office said.

The committee, in a statement on its website, said Emanuel told Oakar it was unacceptable to make such remarks against any ethnic or religious group.

"From the fullness of my heart, I personally apologize on behalf of my family and me. These are not the values upon which I was raised or those of my family," the group quoted him as saying.

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http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1037256.html

He is not, of course, responsible for his father's comments, but I think it was wise of him to apologize and put this matter to rest.

geez

This is exactly what I meant when I wrote about the symbol of having the children of a Muslim and an Israeli in the Oval Office. I can't think of a better way to send the message to the Middle East that you don't have to be defined by battles of the past.