JERUSALEM
Israeli Economy Minister Naftali Bennett slammed recent comments by a senior U.S. official – in which he called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a "chickenshit" – as "gross."
In a statement cited by Israeli daily The Jerusalem Post, Bennett called on the U.S. administration to "immediately reject these gross comments," asserting that insulting Netanyahu was "an insult not just to him, but to the millions of Israeli citizens and Jews across the globe."
"If what appears in the press is true, then it seems that the current U.S. administration is throwing Israel under the bus," he added.
The response came only hours after a report by The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg quoted an unnamed senior U.S. official who described the Israeli premier as "a chickenshit."
"The thing about Bibi [Netanyahu] is he's a chickenshit," the official was quoted by Goldberg as saying.
"The good thing about Netanyahu is that he's scared to launch wars," the official said. "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."
He was quoted as adding: "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."
Tension has emerged between the two historic allies over a series of recent announcements by Israel, seen as damaging by Washington, regarding the former's plans to go ahead with new settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territories of East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
On Tuesday, Netanyahu hit back at criticism of his government's plan to build thousands of Jewish-only settlement units in occupied East Jerusalem, saying such criticisms were "detached from reality."
"We built and we will continue to build in Jerusalem our eternal capital," he said, referring to the occupied city.
International law considers the West Bank and East Jerusalem occupied territories captured by Israel in 1967, deeming all Jewish settlement building on the land illegal.
Sacred to both Muslims and Jews, Jerusalem is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which for Muslims represents the world's third holiest site. Jews refer to the area as the "Temple Mount," claiming it was the site of two prominent Jewish temples in ancient times.
Palestinians accuse Israel of waging an aggressive campaign to "Judaize" the city with the aim of effacing its Arab and Islamic identity and ultimately driving out its Palestinian inhabitants.
Palestinian negotiators insist that Israeli settlement building must stop before stalled peace talks with Israel can resume.
www.aa.com.tr/en
