(CNSNews.com) – The Rev. Jesse Jackson is giving the Obama campaign more headaches, this time for suggesting that Jews would lose influence in an Obama administration.
At a conference on international relations in France last week, Jackson was quoted as saying that "Zionists who have controlled American policy for decades" would lose much of their influence if Sen. Barack Obama is elected president. Jackson was making the point that “Obama is about change.”
Jackson's remarks to New York Post journalist Amir Taheri “echo classic anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about Jewish power," said David A. Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee. "This statement, regrettably, is not the first troubling comment by Rev. Jackson regarding Israel, Zionism and the Jewish people."
In 1984, Jackson called New York City "Hymietown," referring to the city's large Jewish population. He later admitted he was wrong to use the term.
Harris on Tuesday also thanked the Obama campaign for rejecting Jackson's comments and reaffirming the senator's "unshakeable commitment to Israel's security."
The Obama campaign issued a statement saying that Jackson “is not an adviser to the Obama campaign and is therefore in no position to interpret or share Barack Obama’s views on Israel and foreign policy.”
Wendy Morigi, Obama’s national security spokeswoman, said that Obama, as president, “will ensure that Israel can defend itself from every threat it faces, stand with Israel in its quest for a secure peace with its neighbors, and use all elements of American power to end Iran’s illicit nuclear program.”
Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for Sen. John McCain, was quoted as saying that “nobody knows what Barack Obama's policies would be if he were elected president, but it's very concerning that people believe he will not be a friend to Israel."
Jackson issued a statement, saying that his remarks were “distorted.”
Earlier this year, the Rev. Jesse Jackson apologized for crude comments about Obama that were picked up by a live microphone. Jackson, using a slang term, said he wanted to cut off Obama's testicles because Obama was talking down to black people.
"For any harm or hurt that this hot mic private conversation may have caused, I apologize," Jackson wrote in February. "My support for Senator Obama's campaign is wide, deep and unequivocal."
A year ago, a South Carolina newspaper quoted Jackson as saying that Obama was "acting like he's white."