Trying to contextualize why he had urged Egyptians to teach children hatred for Jews, and also why he had referred to Zionists as “the descendants of apes and pigs,” Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi reportedly told a Senate delegation last week that controversy over his remarks was the result of a Jewish-controlled US media conspiracy. The reaction of the Senate delegation, described in a Foreign Policy exclusive, was not positive. Morsi’s comments are difficult to reconcile with the evaluations of some foreign policy analysts, who have insisted that the Muslim Brotherhood-linked president is a sophisticated statesman and a level-headed pragmatist.

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