US moves to disavow ‘chickenshit’ comments as Netanyahu hits back

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday dismissed recent remarks by a US official sharply criticizing his policies, as the US scrambled to disavow itself from the remarks.

"…The attack on me comes only because I am defending the State of Israel," Netanyahu said at a Knesset session held late yesterday.

"If I did not defend the State of Israel, if I did not vigorously uphold our national and security interests, they would not attack me.

Netanyahu's statements came following a report by US online magazine The Atlantic in which author Jeffrey Goldberg quoted an unnamed senior US official as saying that Netanyahu was "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 […] but 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."

The US was quick to try and distance itself from the comments.  

There are issues "where we express concern, and there's disagreement," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said late on Wednesday in response to the comments but she insisted the US relationship with Israel "remains strong."

"Our security bonds have never been greater and the ties between our nations are unshakeable," Psaki told reporters.

The incident comes at a time of growing tensions which have seen Israel ramp-up settlement expansion in Occupied East Jerusalem and enact various restrictions on worship at the al-Aqsa compound, regarded as holy to both Muslims and Jews.

"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," Netanyahu said.