Kerry calls anonymous insult against Netanyahu a 'disgraceful' setback
US secretary of state says recent slurs reportedly made by anonymous Obama official has "made our lives much harder."
By MICHAEL WILNERUS Secretary of State John Kerry in Cairo at the Gaza donors conference(photo credit: REUTERS)
WASHINGTON – Insulting the character and leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “disgraceful, unacceptable and damaging,” US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday, responding to reports of anonymous slurs fro m Obama administration officials against the premier.The public spat has put noticeable strain on the administration, Kerry said, who has known Netanyahu for decades and has worked on a near-daily basis with him since becoming secretary of state.“Such statements are disgraceful, unacceptable and damaging,” Kerry said in a press conference.“I don’t know who the people that said those things are, but it made our lives much harder.”Tensions between Washington and Jerusalem were already on public display before Jeffrey Goldberg, a prominent columnist on matters of interest to the Israeli and American Jewish communities, reported a senior administration official calling Netanyahu a “chickenshit coward” for his stance on Iran.The White House and State Department rejected that characterization and called the language offensive. The administration official has not been identified.Goldberg, the diplomatic correspondent for The Atlantic, spoke to Army Radio on Thursday morning about the splash he made in the headlines this week.“That’s a completely normal course of events: Someone tells the truth, and then because the truth isn’t diplomatic, they have to say the y weren’t authorized to speak,” Goldberg said. “The level of frustration [in the White House] is incredibly high, possibly higher than ever, from the Washington side, and people are boiling over.”Jerusalem Post staff contributed to this report.
