Bibi Netanyahu is a Chickenshit and a Coward

[Mister Nightowl]

Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic writes:

The other day I was talking to a senior Obama administration official about the foreign leader who seems to frustrate the White House and the State Department the most. “The thing about Bibi is, he’s a chickenshit,” this official said, referring to the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, by his nickname.

This comment is representative of the gloves-off manner in which American and Israeli officials now talk about each other behind closed doors, and is yet another sign that relations between the Obama and Netanyahu governments have moved toward a full-blown crisis. The relationship between these two administrations— dual guarantors of the putatively “unbreakable” bond between the U.S. and Israel—is now the worst it's ever been, and it stands to get significantly worse after the November midterm elections. By next year, the Obama administration may actually withdraw diplomatic cover for Israel at the United Nations, but even before that, both sides are expecting a showdown over Iran, should an agreement be reached about the future of its nuclear program.

The fault for this breakdown in relations can be assigned in good part to the junior partner in the relationship, Netanyahu, and in particular, to the behavior of his cabinet. Netanyahu has told several people I’ve spoken to in recent days that he has “written off” the Obama administration, and plans to speak directly to Congress and to the American people should an Iran nuclear deal be reached. For their part, Obama administration officials express, in the words of one official, a “red-hot anger” at Netanyahu for pursuing settlement policies on the West Bank, and building policies in Jerusalem, that they believe have fatally undermined Secretary of State John Kerry’s peace process.

Over the years, Obama administration officials have described Netanyahu to me as recalcitrant, myopic, reactionary, obtuse, blustering, pompous, and “Aspergery.” (These are verbatim descriptions; I keep a running list.) But I had not previously heard Netanyahu described as a “chickenshit.” I thought I appreciated the implication of this description, but it turns out I didn’t have a full understanding. From time to time, current and former administration officials have described Netanyahu as a national leader who acts as though he is mayor of Jerusalem, which is to say, a no-vision small-timer who worries mainly about pleasing the hardest core of his political constituency. (President Obama, in interviews with me, has alluded to Netanyahu’s lack of political courage.)

“The good thing about Netanyahu is that he’s scared to launch wars,” the official said, expanding the definition of what a chickenshit Israeli prime minister looks like. “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.”

I ran this notion by another senior official who deals with the Israel file regularly. This official agreed that Netanyahu is a “chickenshit” on matters related to the comatose peace process, but added that he’s also a “coward” on the issue of Iran’s nuclear threat. The official said the Obama administration no longer believes that Netanyahu would launch a preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities in order to keep the regime in Tehran from building an atomic arsenal. “It’s too late for him to do anything. Two, three years ago, this was a possibility. But ultimately he couldn’t bring himself to pull the trigger. It was a combination of our pressure and his own unwillingness to do anything dramatic. Now it’s too late.”
U.S. officials had described Netanyahu to me as recalcitrant, pompous, and “Aspergery.” But this was the first time I'd heard him called “chickenshit.”

Let the divorce begin!

[adirondacker]

1. Ouch! That's gonna leave a mark. nt

[Nitram]

2. There wil have to be a much-needed divorce before we can redefine our relationship with Israel

We can no longer support "Israel, right or wrong." There is too much at stake, not the least of which is our credibility with every other country in the Middle East. Israel is pursuing policies, such as continued settlement expansion, that are undermining their own security in the long run.

[erpowers]

3. Should Be Fired

Whoever the official is who made the statement that Benjamin Netanyahu is a coward should be fired. To call Netanyahu a coward and then criticize him for not bombing Iran is just crazy and wrong. To me that is like teasing a person. Benjamin Netanyahu is not the person to tease, especially over an issue like Iran. You do not tease a person who is constantly claiming to want to bomb a country. Netanyahu seems likely to bomb Iran to prove he is not a coward. It makes me wonder if the official actually wants Netanyahu to bomb Iran.

[KoKo]

4. That thought crossed my mind, also....reading this article.

When our whole Congress gives him over 20 standing ovations, it's hard to believe that he holds no power and is viewed as just a "Chickenshit."

This article seems to have a "dare you" quality. And after what he did in Gaza why wouldn't he strike Iran when the opportunity presents itself? We (U.S.) is so bogged down in the ME who is going to stop him? We don't exactly look like the "good guys" here with credibility to stop him going ballistic if the current nuclear negotiations with Iran don't go well in BiBi's eyes.

Hope we are wrong...but, the article is a bit odd.

[MBS]

5. here is Sec. Kerry's commentary on this unfortunate incident

http://www.c-span.org/video/?c4513125/secretary-state-john-kerry-chickenst-comment

I agree that the person who made this comment should be fired. As Kerry said, that person has made an already difficult situation even "more difficult", to say the least.