Carney: What's 'Judenrein?'

Jay Carney, Barack Obama's spokesman at the White House, says the administration would not agree with the comments from a leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization who appeared to suggest that Jews would be banned from a new Palestinian state.

The idea comes from PLO Ambassador Maen Areikat, who said in an interview, "I think it would be in the best interest of the two people to be separated."

He had been asked, "Do you foresee in an independent Palestinian state, for instance, a member of the Jewish minority there, if they existed, being elected mayor of Ramallah?"

Areikat responded: "Well, you know, I personally still believe as a first step we need to be totally separated and we can contemplate these issues in the future. But after the experience of the last 44 years of military occupation and all the conflict of friction, I think it would be in the best interests of the two peoples to be separated first."

USA Today, which reported on the comment, later amended its report to note that Areikat said he was "referring to Israelis, not Jews."

"We obviously don't believe that – we believe that any action taken by either side that makes it harder to come together and – in direct negotiations to resolve the issues between the two parties so that we can have a two-state solution that both sides support, is not helpful, not conducive," Carney said today.

"And that would include include actions as well as statements. That would apply to that," he said.

The question had been raised by Les Kinsolving, WND's correspondent on the beat and the second-most senior reporter at the White House.

"The PLO's U.N. ambassador, Areikat, has been quoted by The Washington Times and other media as saying – and this is a quote – 'It would be in the best interests of the two peoples that the proposed future Palestinian state be free of Jews,'" Kinsolving said. "And my question: Does the White House believe that this statement is or is not Judenrein?"

"Is not what?" Carney said.

"Judenrein. Free of Jews. … No Jews – a Nazi term."

Carney said, "We obviously don't believe that. ... I have not seen that statement, so I don't even know if it's accurate. But it would not be – it's not helpful."

According to USA Today, Elliott Abrams, a former U.S. National Security Council official, said such a move on the part of Palestinians has not be seen since Nazi Germany.

Leaders there sought to have their nation "Judenrein," or cleansed of Jews.

Meanwhile, the report said, Israel has 1.3 million Muslims who are Israeli citizens.

"No civilized country would act this way," Abrams told the news agency.

Areikat also protested that he never "said" the word "Jews."

And he confirmed he stands by his call for "separation" of the people of Israel and the Palestinians.

"Israeli people includes Christians, Jews, Muslims, Druze. ... When I say the Israeli people, I mean everybody. This is not a religious conflict, this is not against Jews. We want to be a secular state," Areikat explained.

Ask President Obama your own question.