Obama Nat'l Security Adviser Jones Sorry For Jewish Joke

There's been a bit of a dust-up over a joke that trafficked in Jewish stereotypes that National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones told at the start of a recent speech about the Middle East. And now the retired Marine general says he apologizes to anyone he offended.

The joke about Jewish retailers and a Taliban fighter had at least two negative Jewish stereotypes by my count. Here it is:

In order to set the stage for my remarks I'd just like to tell you a story that I think is true. It happened recently in southern Afghanistan. A member of the Taliban was separated from his fighting party and wandered around for a few days in the desert, lost, out of food, no water. And he looked on the horizon and he saw what looked like a little shack and he walked towards that shack. And as he got to it, it turned out it was a little store own by a Jewish merchant. And the Taliban warrior went up to him and said, "I need water, give me some water." And the merchant said, "I'm sorry, I don't have any water but would you like a tie. We have a nice sale of ties today."

Whereupon the Taliban erupted into a stream of language that I can't repeat, about Israel, about Jewish people, about the man himself, about his family, and just said, "I need water, you try to sell me ties, you people don't get it." The merchant stood there until the Taliban was through with his diatribe and said, "Well I'm sorry I don't have water for you and I forgive you for all of the insults you've levied against me, my family, my country. But I will help you out. If you go over that hill and walk about two miles there is a restaurant there and they will have all the water you need." And the Taliban, instead of saying thanks, still muttering under his breath, disappears over the hill, only to come back an hour later, and walking up to the merchant says, "You're brother tells me a I need a tie to get into the restaurant."

 

It's safe to say, many will find it fairly stunning that a national security director would not know that a lot of people wouldn't find this joke funny.

Set aside the Jewish-person-as-retailer theme. Then there is the even more offensive heartless-Jewish-retailers-who-only-care-about-money theme. Again, a lot of people will find themselves shaking their heads in astonishment at this.

But Mark Knoller, the White House correspondent for CBS News, tweets that the general has apologized:

"I apologize to anyone who was offended by it," said Jones in a written statement just issued by the WH.

Knoller also tweets:

WH says Pres. Obama dropped by a mtg this morning Gen Jones had with Israeli DefMin Ehud Barack. Gibbs says the "joke" didn't come up.