Rahm Emanuel has done the decent thing in apologizing for his father’s insulting comment in which he noted that his son would, of course, ensure the White House was “pro-Israel” because he certainly was no Arab whose job it would be to clean White House floors:
“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,” said an Emanuel spokesman, Nick Papas.
The committee had written Emanuel demanding that he repudiate the remark…
In colloquial Hebrew (Emanuel’s father is a native Hebrew speaker), the term “Arab work” is considered any demeaning job beneath someone’s dignity. Clearly, this was the type of attitude Emanuel, Sr. had in mind when he made his comment.
It’s unfortunate though that Emanuel, Jr. waited till an Arab-American organization demanded that he apologize. I would’ve thought he would’ve understood from the moment he first read his father’s remarks that he would want to publicly apologize. Apparently, Emanuel doesn’t want to appear too obsequious before the hawkish leadership of the American Jewish community.
