Netanyahu Blasts Obama Administration for Cursing Him

JERUSALEM—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he’s under fire because he won’t compromise the safety of Israel.

“When there is pressure on Israel to give up on its security, the easiest thing is to give up,” Arutz Sheva quoted Netanyahu’s response at the Knesset.

“As prime minister, I stand for the security of Israel,” he continued. “The life of every single citizen and soldier matters to me, and I am not prepared to make compromises that will endanger our country.”

“Our interests are not on the minds of those who attack us—or me—personally,” he said. “The attack on me comes because I defend the State of Israel and despite all the attacks, I will continue to defend our country and the citizens of Israel.”

He added that he respects and values Israel’s relations with the United States.

“The strategic alliance between the countries continues and will continue,” he said.

Those were his first public remarks after The Atlantic quoted a senior Obama administration official calling Netanyahu a word that starts with “chicken.”

The official told The Atlantic the good thing about Netanyahu was that he was afraid to launch wars, but the bad thing was he won’t reach an accommodation with the Palestinian Authority or Sunni Arab states. Another White House official called Netanyahu a coward on a nuclear Iran and said he won’t launch a preemptive strike.

Israeli Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett called on the Obama administration to “immediately reject these gross comments.”

“The prime minister of Israel is not a private person. He is the leader of the Jewish state and the entire Jewish people. Cursing the prime minister and calling him names is an insult not just to him but to the millions of Israeli citizens and Jews across the globe,” Bennett wrote.

“The leader of Syria, who slaughtered 150,000 people, was not awarded the name ‘chickens—,'” Bennett continued. “Neither was the leader of Saudi Arabia who stones women and homosexuals or the leader of Iran who murders freedom protestors.”

“If what appears in the press is true, then it seems that the current U.S. administration is throwing Israel under the bus,” Bennett wrote.

“Israel is the only democratic state in the Middle East and has been fighting 66 years to survive,” he continued.

“Israel is at the forefront of the free world’s fight against the Islamic terror of ISIS, Hezbollah, Hamas, and Iran. Instead of attacking Israel and putting it at risk, the world should be strengthening and supporting it.”