As you've probably read by now, high level officials at the White House refer to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as "chicksh*it" among other childish things according to reporting from The Atlantic's Jeffery Goldberg. Although President Obama hasn't addressed the alleged comments yet (and Press Secretary Josh Earnest dodged questions during the daily briefing today), Netanyahu has issued a response with indirect references to unacceptable White House foreign policy positions regarding Israel over the years.
"When Israel is pressured to make concessions on its security it is very easy to give in. There are ovations and ceremonies on lawns and afterwards come the missiles and the tunnels. As Prime Minister I am responsible for Israel's security. I care about the lives of every civilian and soldier. I have been on the battlefield many times. I have risked my life for the country and I am not prepared to make concessions that will endanger our state," Netanyahu said. "It must be understood that our supreme interests with security and the unity of Jerusalem first and foremost are not among the top concerns of those anonymous elements that are attacking us and me personally, because the attack on me comes only because I am defending the State of Israel."
Meanwhile, a top Jewish leader is calling for President Obama to directly denounce comments about the Prime Minister and to punish the person who made them (which of course can only happen it wasn't Obama himself who made the comments first).
Rabbi Marvin Hier, the founder and Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, has called on President Obama to "name, apologize for, and repudiate" the anonymous official quoted in an Atlantic Magazine article describing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a "chickenshit," The Algemeiner reports.
In a telephone call with The Algemeiner from his Los Angeles office, an incensed Rabbi Hier declared: "It is rather ironic that a senior American official is prepared to curse his friends, yet when it comes to the mortal enemies of the United States -- as the Iranians discovered during the recent nuclear negotiation -- praise is heaped on them."
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