(Transcript from World News Radio)
Israel's Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, says he regrets comments he made about Israeli Arabs.
Mr Netanyahu's comments were denounced by critics as racist and drew expressions of concern from the United States.
Santilla Chingaipe has the details.
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It was this video, posted to his Facebook page on election day last week, that caused anger from Israel's closest ally, the United States.
In it, Mr Netanyahu warned supporters of what he described as "right-wing rule being in danger" as left-wing organisations were bringing Arabs to vote "in buses" to sway the election against him.
Those comments did not go down well with many Israeli Arabs and the U-S.
The White House said it was deeply concerned by the use of what it called "divisive rhetoric" in the Israeli election that sought to undermine Arab-Israeli citizens.
Now, Mr Netanyahu has offered an apology of sorts.
(translated) I know that the things I said a few days ago offended Israel's Arabs. I had no intention for this to happen, I regret this. My actions as prime minister, including the great investments in the minority sectors, prove the total opposite. I consider myself as prime minister of each one of you, of all Israel's citizens, regardless of religion, race or gender."
The rousing speech was directed to a group of Israeli Arabs who had visited him at his official residence in Jerusalem.
Ayman Odeh is the leader of the Joint Arab List, the third largest political party in parliament.
He says Mr Netanyahu's comments don't seem to be sincere.
(translated) "He didn't call the leadership of the Arab population, he didn't meet them. He apologises because there is international criticism, including criticism from the United States. Is it actions or words? We demand a real apology, on the ground, meaning equality to the Arab population. The prime minister is doing the opposite of that." (Odeh ends)
Israeli Arabs make up about 20 per cent of the country's population of over eight million.
Many are descendants of residents who stayed put during the 1948 Israeli-Arab war.
That conflict forced hundreds of thousands of their fellow Palestinians to flee, scattering among Jordan, Lebanon and Syria and Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Mr Netanyahu's comments about Israeli-Arabs weren't the only ones to anger the U-S.
Ahead of the vote, Mr Netanyahu also said he would not allow the creation of a Palestinian state if re-elected.
But by Thursday last week, he appeared to have watered down those comments in this interview with M-S-N-B-C.
"I don't want a one-state solution. I want a sustainable, peaceful two-state solution, but for that circumstances have to change."
However, that has seemed eased tensions with the Obama administration.
Denis McDonough is the White House chief of staff.
Addressing an audience at J Street - a Jewish group that is a proponent of two states side by side and was also opposed to Mr Netanyahu in the election campaign - he says the US can't ignore those comments.
"After the election, the Prime Minister said that he had not changed his position, but for many in Israel and in the international community, such contradictory comments call into question his commitment to a two-state solution, as did his suggestion that the construction of settlements has a strategic purpose of dividing Palestinian communities and his claim that conditions in the larger Middle East must be more stable before a Palestinian state can be established. We cannot simply pretend that these comments were never made."
Despite the disagreement, US and Israeli envoys were absent from a United Nations Human Rights Council special session on the situation in the Palestinian territories in the aftermath of the 2014 Gaza conflict.
Israel provided no explanation for not being at the session dedicated to discussion of its policies and alleged abuses.
For its part, the US says it is US policy not to participate in Council debates on any specific agenda item on Israel, which it maintains unfairly singles out the Jewish state.
