BRUSSELS (EJP)---EU’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she was confident fellow Commissioner for Trade Karel De Gucht "did not intend any offense" with his remarks on Jews when he was asked in a radio interview for his opinion on the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian talks.

Ashton  added in a statement issued by her office on Friday that she was "encouraged by the positive outcome of the launch of direct talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority."

She  reaffirmed "the EU's engagement and full support to the success of the negotiations" and stressed "the role of the Quartet in driving this process to a successful conclusion."

In the interview with the Belgian Flemish public radio on Thursday, De Gucht, a former Belgian Foreign Minister, expressed skepticism about the talks and said "one shouldn’t underestimate the power of the Jewish lobby on Capitol Hill". "That is the best organized lobby that exists there,"  he continued. He added that "there is a belief, I can hardly describe it differently, among most Jews that they are right. So it is not easy to have a rational discussion with a moderate Jew about what is happening in the Middle East. It is a very emotional issue."

The remarks drew sharp reactions from Jewish organizations. Moshe Kantor, President of the the European Jewish Congress (EJC) called  the declarations part of a "new wave of new anti-Semitism growing in Europe."

"It has somehow become acceptable to attack Jews through Israel, even at the highest levels," said Kantor. "The old anti-Semitic libels of the all-powerful Jewish cabals, the recalcitrant Jew and the irrational Jews only caring for their own, are remade to fit 21st- century hostility to the Jewish State."

The Jewish leader called on De Gucht to apologize and retract his statements. On Friday afternoon, the Commission issued a “personal statement” in which the Commissioner didn’t apologize but explained he did not mean "to cause offense or stigmatize the Jewish Community."

“I want to make clear that anti-Semitism has no place in today's world and is fundamentally against our European values,” he added.

Earlier, the EU Commission distanced itself from De Gucht’s remarks, speaking of "personal comments."