[Quotes from senior Obama
administration figures damn Israeli prime minister as ‘chickenshit’ over stance
on settlements and peace with Palestinians]
By Peter Beaumont
 |
Binyamin Netanyahu is condemned
by Obama administration officials in an interview
for the
|
US relations with Israel
have plunged to new depths of bitterness and hostility as senior officials in
the Obama administration decried Binyamin Netanyahu as a “chickenshit prime
minister”, “coward” and a man more interested in his own political survival
than peace.
The furious assessment delivered
in anonymous but no-holds barred commentsin an interview with the American
journalist Jeffrey Goldberg in the Atlantic underline a state of anger with
Netanyahu that is characterised as “red hot”.
The remarks are particularly
telling in having been made to Goldberg, a Washington
insider who has interviewed both Obama and Netanyahu, and who warned US-Israeli
relations were in a “full-blown crisis” that could only get worse after the
midterm elections.
Speaking to the Israeli
parliament – the Knesset – a few hours after the comments were revealed, Netanyahu
angrily insisted he was “under attack simply for defending Israel ”,
adding that he “cherished” Israel ’s
relationship with the US .
“When there are pressures on Israel
to concede its security, the easiest thing to do is to concede,” he said. “You
get a round of applause, ceremonies on grassy knolls, and then come the
missiles and the tunnels.”
The Obama officials’ comments
underline the dismal state of relations between the Obama administration and
Netanyahu after a series of damaging announcements by Israel
– including again this week – regarding its determination to push ahead with
settlement building in occupied East Jerusalem and the West
Bank .
The temperature of relations
plunged again last week when Israel’s defence minister, Moshe Yaalon, was
pointedly snubbed by senior administration officials during a visit last week
to Washington, which itself followed a public warning from the White House that
Israel risked alienating its “closest allies”.
Despite the deepening frustration
in Washington , Netanyahu
continued to hit back over the latest settlement announcement, saying US
criticism was “detached from reality”, even on the eve of the publication of
the latest remarks.
“The thing about Bibi is, he’s a
chickenshit,” said one official quoted in the Atlantic . “The
good thing about Netanyahu is that he’s scared to launch wars. The bad thing
about him is that he won’t do anything to reach an accommodation with the
Palestinians or with the Sunni Arab states.
“The only thing he’s interested
in is protecting himself from political defeat. He’s not [Yitzhak] Rabin, he’s
not [Ariel] Sharon , he’s certainly
no [Menachem] Begin. He’s got no guts.”
In a more diplomatic and public
statement on the recent settlement announcements, the US national security
council spokesman Alistair Baskey insisted the US would continue to criticise
Israel.
“There are times when we disagree
with actions of the Israeli government and we must raise our concerns, such as
our concerns about Israel ’s
settlement policy,” he said. “We raise these concerns as a partner who is
deeply concerned about Israel ’s
future and wants to see Israel
living side by side in peace and security with its neighbours.”
In comments designed to further
sting Netanyahu, who has expended huge diplomatic effort on attempting to
derail any deal with Iran
over its nuclear programme, another official suggested the White House no
longer believed Netanyahu would launch a pre-emptive strike on Iran
to prevent it obtaining nuclear weapons.
“It’s too late for him to do
anything,” the official said. “Two, three years ago, this was a possibility. But
ultimately he couldn’t bring himself to pull the trigger. It was a combination
of our pressure and his own unwillingness to do anything dramatic. Now it’s too
late.”
A White House spokesman sought to
distance the administration from the remarks, insisting they were
“inappropriate and counter-productive”, adding Netanyahu and Obama have “forged
an effective partnership”.
The comments are the latest in a
series of high-profile spats between Washington and Netanyahu’s government. Relations
began their sharp decline when defence minister Yaalon accused the US secretary
of state, John Kerry, of being “obsessive and messianic” in his pursuit of a
peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians. Later, in off-the-record remarks,
Kerry warned that Israeli risked becoming “an apartheid state”.
On Wednesday Netanyahu told the
Knesset: “I am not prepared to make concessions that will endanger our state. Understand,
our national interests, topped by security and the unity of Jerusalem ,
are not what top the interests of those anonymous forces attacking us, and me
personally. I am under attack simply because I am defending the State of Israel.
If I didn’t stand firm on our national interests, I would not be under attack.
“I respect and cherish the deep
connection with the United States .
Since the establishment of the state, we’ve had our arguments and then some. We
have seen time after time, year and year, support rising among the American
public. The strategic alliance between the stances is continuing and will
continue.”
Responding to the remarks in the Atlantic
late on Tuesday night, Israel ’s
far-right economics minister, Naftali Bennett, used his Facebook page to call
for Washington to renounce the
comments: “If what was written [in The Atlantic] is true, then it appears the
current administration plans to throw Israel
under the bus.
“The prime minister is not a
private person but the leader of the Jewish state and the whole Jewish world. Such
severe insults towards the prime minister of Israel
are hurtful to millions of Israeli citizens and Jews all over the world.
“Instead of attacking Israel
and forcing it to accept suicidal terms, it should be strengthened. I call on
the US
administration to renounce these coarse comments and to reject them outright.”
@ The Guardian
@ The Guardian