JERUSALEM - A right-wing Israeli lawmaker called the US ambassador a "Jew boy" and a "son of a bitch" at a memorial ceremony for assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported yesterday.
A US embassy spokesman in Tel Aviv confirmed the report and Israel's Foreign Ministry later issued an apology.
Mr Rehavam Zeevi, head of the ultra-nationalist Moledet party, called the ambassador, Mr Martin Indyk, "yehudon" - a Hebrew slur translated as "Jew boy" or "Yid" - at the memorial on Thursday, the newspaper said.
The newspaper said Mr Indyk, a Jew originally from Australia, told Mr Zeevi: "The last time somebody called me a `Jewboy' was when I was 15 and then he got a punch in the face."
Mr Zeevi replied: "Well, try me."
Mr Indyk: "You are a disgrace to your people.
Mr Zeevi: "You are a son of a bitch."