PM shoots down dangerous quotes from Arab world

Netanyahu denies saying "situation in Jordan worse than Syria" and that "fall of Tantawi in Egypt worse than fall of Mubarak."

By HERB KEINON
Netanyahu R370 (photo credit: REUTERS)
Netanyahu R370
(photo credit: REUTERS)
For the second time in a week Israel found itself on Thursday denying potentially dangerous and erroneous statements attributed to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in the Arab world.
Samih al-Mayata, a Jordanian government spokesman, was quoted in the Jordanian media earlier this week as being asked at a briefing about a statement he was told Netanyahu made that “the situation in Jordan is worse even than the situation in Syria.”
Mayata responded that “we will not wait until Prime Minister Netanyahu teaches us how to manage affairs in our country. After a year and a half [of turmoil in the Arab world] not one drop of Jordanian blood has been spilled.That is thanks to vigilance for coping with popular assembly in Jordan.”
Netanyahu spokesman Mark Regev said the prime minister has “never used such words.”
On the contrary, Regev said, “Whenever the issue of Jordan comes up he has always stressed that the situation in Jordan is stable. Anything else is simply a fabrication.”
Regev said it was possible that the comments attributed to Netanyahu came from “anti-Israel elements in the blogosphere.”
Earlier this week, Netanyahu’s spokesman for the Arabic media Ofir Gendelman denied reports in the Egyptian press that Netanyahu said the forced ouster of Egyptian Defense Minister Mohamed Hussein Tantawi was worse than the fall of Hosni Mubarak.