US-Israel relations plummet after White House official’s comments

US official's comments implying Benjamin Netanyahu is a coward put further pressure on ties strained by Israeli settlements and a possible deal between Washington and Iran on its nuclear programme.

Relations between Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and US president Barack Obama have never been particularly warm, as this photograph from a meeting in the Oval Office on May 20, 2011, suggests. Jim Watson / AFPShow less

Washington // Relations between the US and Israeli governments hit an all-time low this week as tensions over the failure of the US-mediated peace talks and new Israeli settlements – and with a deadline for a nuclear deal with Iran looming – spilled further into the open.

After Benjamin Netanyahu’s government announced plans on Monday to build 1,060 new Jewish settlements beyond the Green Line, including in Arab-majority east Jerusalem, the Atlantic magazine on Tuesday quoted a White House official as describing the prime minister with a derogatory term synonymous with “coward”.

“He won’t do anything to reach an accommodation with the Palestinians or with the Sunni Arab states,” the official, who was not named, said. “The only thing he’s interested in is protecting himself from political defeat.”

The insult followed comments by Israeli officials and the country’s defence minister, Moshe Ya’alon, describing the White House’s understanding of the Middle East as “naive” and attempts by the US secretary of state John Kerry to mediate peace negotiations with the Palestinians, which collapsed in July, as misguided.

When Mr Ya’alon visited Washington last week, senior officials including Mr Kerry, vice president Joseph Biden and national security adviser Susan Rice all refused to meet him.

The Obama administration was still scrambling to conduct damage control on Thursday, with Mr Kerry saying the insults were “disgraceful, damaging”.

But his admonition came a day after reports that White House officials told members of Congress that the Atlantic’s source was likely in the State Department. Separately, a National Security Council spokesman denied the remarks were made by White House officials.

Some observers believe the bruising words were strategically issued.

As the November 24 deadline for a nuclear deal with Iran approaches, some in Washington expect Mr Netanyahu to make a direct appeal to Congress and the US public that any deal that lets Tehran enrich uranium is a dangerous outcome that would leave Iran permanently on the threshold of building a nuclear weapon.

The public discrediting of Mr Netanyahu could be an attempt to undermine the impact of any publicity push by the Israeli premier to get Congress to oppose any deal and lifting of sanctions on Tehran, though administration officials have said they would lift the sanctions without Congress approval.

The Atlantic article also implied that the White House may not veto UN Security Council resolutions aimed at Israel, which would be unprecedented.

The Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas told the UN last month that he intended to send a resolution to the council that would require Israel to withdraw from occupied territories by November 2016.

There is still little hope of such a binding resolution being passed, but after the constraints of next week’s US mid-term elections are lifted, the White House could decline to veto a resolution on settlement construction. Doing so now could damage the prospects of candidates from Mr Obama’s Democratic party.

“We view settlement activities as illegitimate and we are unequivocally opposed to unilateral steps,” state department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said this week.

On Wednesday, the Security Council held an emergency meeting on the new settlement construction against a backdrop of spiralling violence and tensions in Jerusalem.

The swift convening of the meeting, at the request of Jordan, a non-permanent council member, suggests that the US did not attempt to use closed-door diplomacy to delay it.

The UN’s under secretary general for political affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, called on the council to take action, but no resolution was forthcoming.

However, council members including the US condemned Israel’s actions as a breach of international law.

New settlements would “escalate tensions at a time when they are already tense enough”, said the US representative, David Pressman.

Reacting to US condemnation of the settlements before the emergency UN meeting, Mr Netanyahu dismissed such statements as “disconnected from reality”.

“Just as the French build in Paris and the British build in London, Israelis build in Jerusalem. We will continue to build in Jerusalem,” the Israeli premier said.