Obama-Netanyahu tensions level up with reported slur

An anonymous U.S. official’s reported description of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “chickens**t,” or worthless coward, drew a sharp response on Wednesday from the Israeli leader - no stranger to acrimony with the Obama administration. The American broadside, in an interview in The Atlantic magazine, followed a month of heated exchanges between the Netanyahu government and Washington over settlement building in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, which Palestinians seek as the capital of a future state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

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.

Anonymous U.S. official to The Atlantic

The U.S. and international community have slammed Israel for recent plans to build thousands of new Jewish settler homes on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem—moves that are seen as making peace and the creation of a Palestinian state almost impossible. Secretary of State John Kerry’s high-profile peace bid collapsed spectacularly earlier this year, in part after Israel unveiled more settlement plans only hours after he met Netanyahu. The Atlantic reported U.S. frustration has boiled over to the point that it may consider withdrawing “diplomatic cover for Israel” at the United Nations.

Our security bonds have never been greater … Obviously actions … like the announcement of new settlements, are counterproductive to that—or contradictory, I should say.

Jen Psaki, State Department spokeswoman

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