Israeli writer A.B. Yehoshua at a public lecture called American Jews “partial Jews.”

Discussing the relationship between Israel and diaspora Jews in a talk at the Land of Israel Museum, Yehoshua said of American Jews, “They are partial Jews while I am a complete Jew,” the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.

“In no way are we the same thing — we are total and they are partial; we are Israeli and also Jewish.”

Yehoshua also said that living outswide Israel “is a very deep failure of the Jewish people,” according to Haaretz, and called immigration from the United States minimal and embarrassing.

Yehoshua has made such statements in the past. In 2008 he said at a Paris conference, “I am a total Jew because I live in Israel, but you in France are partial Jews, though one is not better or worse than the other.” — jta