Hoyer takes aim at Moran’s AIPAC comment

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) went after fellow Democrat Jim Moran of Virginia Tuesday, calling on him to retract his comments about the Israel lobby.

{mosads}“His remarks were factually inaccurate and recall an old canard that is not true, that the Jewish community controls the media and the Congress,” Hoyer said at a news conference in the Capitol.

In an interview published in the September-October issue of Tikkun magazine, Moran said the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, “has pushed this war from the beginning … They are so well-organized, and their members are extraordinarily powerful — most of them are quite wealthy — they have been able to exert power.”

Asked if he considered Moran’s remarks anti-Semitic and if he should apologize, Hoyer reiterated that he found them “factually inaccurate” and said Moran should “retract” them.

In a statement issued by Moran’s office, the congressman admitted that the tone of his remarks were “unnecessarily harsh” but stood by his statements that AIPAC does not represent “mainstream American Jewish opinion.”