Netanyahu ‘Spat In Our
Face,’ White House Officials Said
PM ‘will pay price’ for spat over Congress
address; Obama said to have asked him to
tone down pro-sanctions rhetoric; Wash.
Post: Kerry’s enthusiasm for defending
Israel may wane
By Times of Israel staff
January 23, 2015 "ICH"
- "TOI"
- The White House’s outrage over Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to speak
before Congress in March — a move he failed
to coordinate with the administration —
began to seep through the diplomatic cracks
on Friday, with officials telling Haaretz
the Israeli leader had “spat” in President
Barack Obama’s face.
We thought we’ve seen
everything,”
the newspaper quoted an unnamed senior US
official as saying. “But Bibi managed to
surprise even us.
“There are things you simply don’t do. He
spat in our face publicly and that’s no way
to behave. Netanyahu ought to remember that
President Obama has a year and a half left
to his presidency, and that there will be a
price,” he said.
Officials in Washington said that the
“chickenshit” epithet — with which an
anonymous administration official branded
Netanyahu several months ago — was mild
compared to the language used in the White
House when news of Netanyahu’s planned
speech came in.
In
his address the Israeli leader is expected
to speak about stalled US-led nuclear
negotiations with Iran, and to urge
lawmakers to slap Tehran with a new round of
tougher sanctions in order to force it to
comply with international demands. The
Mossad intelligence service on Thursday went
to the rare length of issuing
a press statement to deny claims, cited by
Kerry, that its chief Tamir Pardo had told
visiting US politicians that he opposed
further sanctions.
Haaretz reported that Obama had personally
demanded that Netanyahu tone down his
pro-sanctions rhetoric in a phone call
between the two last week. The president has
said a sanctions bill would cripple
negotiations with Iranian leaders at a
critical stage, and has threatened to veto
such a bill should it come through.
The
Washington Post reported that Netanyahu’s
apparent disrespect for the US leadership
was particularly offensive to Secretary of
State John Kerry, who over the past month
had made frenzied efforts on Israel’s behalf
on the world stage — making dozens of calls
to world leaders to convince them to oppose
a UN Security Council resolution which would
have set a timeframe for the
establishment of a Palestinian state.
“The secretary’s patience is not infinite,”
a source close to Kerry told the Post. “The
bilateral relationship is unshakable. But
playing politics with that relationship
could blunt Secretary Kerry’s enthusiasm for
being Israel’s primary defender.”
The
White House said Thursday that Obama would
not meet with Netanyahu when he travels to
Washington, with a spokeswoman citing a
“long-standing practice and principle” by
which the president does not meet with heads
of state or candidates in close proximity to
their elections. Kerry will also not meet
with Netanyahu.
Netanyahu will be in Washington in part for
a March 3 address to a joint session of
Congress. House Speaker John Boehner invited
Netanyahu to speak to Congress without
consulting the Obama administration.
The
White House initially reacted icily to
Netanyahu’s plans to address Congress, an
appearance apparently meant to bolster
opposition to a nuclear deal with Iran as it
is currently shaping up, as well as
opposition to new sanctions against Tehran.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest suggested
Wednesday that Netanyahu and Boehner had
broken with protocol in not informing Obama
of the prime minister’s travel plans.
“We
haven’t heard from the Israelis directly
about the trip at all,” he said, adding the
White House would “reserve judgment” about
any possible face-to-face meeting until
explanations are made.
“The typical protocol would suggest that the
leader of a country would contact the leader
of another country when he is traveling
there. That is certainly how President
Obama’s trips are planned,” explained
Earnest.
“So
this particular event seems to be a
departure from that protocol.”
Speaking several hours after Earnest, top US
diplomat Kerry said Netanyahu was welcome to
give a speech at “any time” in the United
States. But Kerry agreed it had been a
“little unusual” to hear about the Israeli
leader’s speech to US Congress next month
from the office of Boehner and not via the
usual diplomatic channels.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, leader of the House
Democrats, said that Boehner blundered when
he invited Netanyahu to address Congress
amid sensitive negotiations about Iran’s
nuclear program and in the shadow of
Israel’s elections.
“If
that’s the purpose of Prime Minister
Netanyahu’s visit two weeks before his own
election, right in the midst of our
negotiations, I just don’t think it’s
appropriate and helpful,” Pelosi told
reporters Thursday at her weekly news
conference. The speech, Pelosi suggested,
could give Netanyahu a political boost in
elections a few weeks later and inflame
international talks aimed at stopping Iran’s
nuclear program.
Israel is scheduled to hold elections on
March 17.
Netanyahu confirmed Thursday that he would
address Congress in early March. He was
initially slated to speak on February 11,
but changed the date so he could attend the
AIPAC conference.
“The Prime Minister is expected to arrive in
the US at the beginning of March and will
also participate in the AIPAC conference,”
read a statement from the PMO. “The speech
in front of both houses of Congress will
give the prime minister the opportunity to
thank President Barack Obama, Congress, and
the American people for their support of
Israel.
“I
look forward to the opportunity to express
before the joint session Israel’s vision for
a joint effort to deal with [Islamist
terrorism and Iran’s nuclear program], and
to emphasize Israel’s commitment to the
special bond between our two democracies,”
Netanyahu said, according to the statement.
Israel and the United States are close
allies, but personal relations between Obama
and Netanyahu have reportedly deteriorated
over the years.
The
pair have publicly clashed over Israeli
settlement building in the West Bank and
about how to tackle Iran’s disputed nuclear
program.
Obama’s allies fear Netanyahu’s March trip
could be used by Israel and by Republicans
to rally opposition to a nuclear deal,
undercutting years of sensitive negotiations
just as they appear poised to bear fruit.
In
November the already faltering ties between
the leaders were served a new blow when an
anonymous US official was quoted calling
Netanyahu a “chickenshit” in an
article published by journalist Jeffrey
Goldberg in the American magazine The
Atlantic. The article portrayed the rift
between the United States and Israel as a
“full-blown crisis.”
AP and Lazar Berman
contributed to this report.