A senior Obama administration official recently called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a "chicken sh**" and a "coward."
"The thing about Bibi is, he's a chicken sh**," an official told The Atlantic repoter Jefferey Goldberg, referring to the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, by his nickname, during an interview.
Goldberg revealed the official's remarks in a piece discussing the relationship between the Israel and American allies.
"This comment is representative of the gloves-off manner in which American and Israeli officials now talk about each other behind closed doors, and is yet another sign that relations between the Obama and Netanyahu governments have moved toward a full-blown crisis," Goldberg wrote. "The relationship between these two administrations - dual guarantors of the putatively 'unbreakable' bond between the U.S. and Israel, is now the worst it's ever been, and it stands to get significantly worse after the November midterm elections."
The official called Netanyahu a "chicken sh**" because he feels the prime minister is "only interested" in protecting himself from political defeat, reported Goldberg. The official praised Netanyahu's reluctancy to start a war, while also criticizing his hesitancy to reach an accommodation with the Palestinians or Sunni Arab states.
Before publication, Goldberg said he ran the allegations made against Netanyahu by another official in the Obama administration.
The two officials agreed on the "chicken sh**" comment, according to Goldberg.
The second official also apparently "added that [Netanyahu] is also a 'coward' on the issue of Iran's nuclear threat." The official said the Obama administration no longer believes that Netanyahu would launch a preemptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities in order to keep the regime in Tehran from building an atomic arsenal.
