The American broadside, in an interview in The Atlantic magazine, followed a month of heated exchanges between the Netanyahu government and Washington over settlement-building in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem, which Palestinians seek as the capital of a future state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
"The thing about Bibi is, he’s a chickenshit,” the unidentified official was quoted as saying, using Netanyahu's nickname and a slang insult certain to redden the ears of the U.S.-educated former commando.
"The good thing about Netanyahu is that he’s scared to launch wars," the official said, alluding to past hints of possible Israeli military action against Iran's nuclear program. "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."
Netanyahu, the official was reported to have said, is interested only in "protecting himself from political defeat ... He's got no guts." » | Jeffrey Heller, Reuters | Wednesday, October 29, 2014
