President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu at the White House. Photo: Screenshot.

JNS.org – The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, which represents 51 national Jewish groups, said the Obama administration’s criticism of its official who called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “chickenshit” is a welcome development but does not “undo the damage” of the remark.

The insult of Netanyahu means that “every manifestation of division between these two allies is exploited by the enemies of both,” said Conference of Presidents Chairman Robert G. Sugarman and Executive Vice Chairman Malcolm Hoenlein.

“We ask that the person responsible be held to account and the appropriate steps be taken by the administration,” they said. “We call on officials, media and others in the public arena to consider the consequences of the words and deeds.”

Alistair Baskey, a spokesman for the National Security Council, had said Wednesday regarding the anonymous official’s slur of Netanyahu, “Certainly that’s not the administration’s view, and we think such comments are inappropriate and counter-productive.”

Meanwhile, the Ruderman Family Foundation, an organization that prioritizes the inclusion of people with disabilities, focused on a different Obama administration comment than “chickenshit.” In the same article for The Atlantic that revealed the “chickenshit” slur, Jeffrey Goldberg also reported, “Over the years, Obama administration officials have described Netanyahu to me as recalcitrant, myopic, reactionary, obtuse, blustering, pompous, and ‘Aspergery.'”

“While it is perfectly acceptable for people to be critical of each other, it is unacceptable to use a term of disability in a derogatory manner,” said Jay Ruderman, President of the Ruderman Family Foundation.

“The term ‘Aspergery’ was used in a manner that is insulting to the millions of people around the world with Asperger Syndrome,” said Jay Ruderman, president of the Ruderman Family Foundation. “It is never OK to insult someone by referring to them by using disability in a negative manner.”

The foundation called on the Obama administration to release a statement denouncing the use of the name of a disability in a derogatory manner.