Iran’s Role in the ‘Chickenshit’ Scandal

Jeffrey Goldberg, a Jewish-American journalist who is known to be the most influential reporter on relations with the Israeli regime, revealed the depth of the differences between the two nations when he reported the unprecedented expressions American officials had used to describe the Israeli regime. At the same time, he predicted that the future of relations between the two countries, which even now are at a low point, will indeed worsen.

According to Tabnak, in Goldberg’s article in the most recent issue of the American periodical The Atlantic, he wrote that to whatever extent American officials had previously referred to Netanyahu as cowardly, short-sighted, passive, weak-minded and self-absorbed, calling him “chickenshit”‘ was a new phenomenon.

In Goldberg’s view, both current and former American officials have not considered Netanyahu up to the task of prime minister, especially when compared to the likes of Robin, Begin and Sharon. They consider him as at the rank of a mayor of Jerusalem, concerned only with maintaining his position with his hardline supporters.

The verbal spats between Obama’s and Netanyahu’s teams are nothing new. Ha’aretz compiled a list in which one side belittled the other or used insulting language to describe it.

Five instances in which the American side insulted the Israelis:

1) In March 2010, when Netanyahu rejected a request to stop building settlements, Obama suddenly ended negotiations with the Israelis to eat dinner with his family. Without offering dinner to his guests, Obama said, “I’m going to the residential part of the White House to eat dinner with Michelle and the girls. I’ll be there. If you change your mind, let me know.”

2) In November 2011, after a G-20 summit in Cannes, France, Obama and Sarkozy started badmouthing Netanyahu when they thought their microphones were off. Sarkozy called Netanyahu a liar and said to Obama, “You’re fed up with him? I have to deal with him every day.”

3) In March 2010 Hillary Clinton butted heads with Netanyahu for 45 minutes on the phone over the construction of 1,600 new living units in occupied territories.

4) In April 2014, John Kerry said in part of his unpublished statements that if Israel continued on in this fashion, it would be in danger of becoming an apartheid state.

5. In May 2014, after the failure of Kerry’s efforts in the peace process, the Americans named the Israelis as the greatest obstacle to the negotiations.

An equivalent list of insults from Netanyahu’s team toward the Americans exists:

1) In May 2011, after visiting Obama at the White House, Netanyahu disregarded proper protocol for interacting with a world leader and, taking on the air of a history teacher, tried to force Obama to accept the 1967 borders.

2) In January 2014, Moshe Ya’alon, Netanyahu’s defense minister mocked Kerry’s views on the peace process by saying that it would be better if Kerry won a Nobel Prize sooner rather than later and “leave us in peace.”

3) In July 2012, Netanyahu supported Romney in the presidential elections.

4) In October 2014, after Obama opposed Israel’s settlement building, Netanyahu went to a TV program on CBS network and claimed the Obama administration’s position was at odds with American values.

5) In March 2012, in a session with the lobbyist group AIPAC, Netanyahu quoted from a number of letters from World War II and said, “Regarding the issue of a nuclear agreement with Iran, Israel can rely on no one but itself.”*

As the mutual insults continue on, two issues in particular have caused the recent flare-ups: the failure of the latest peace negotiations and Netanyahu’s insistence on building settlements despite the Obama administration’s opposition.

According to the Jerusalem Post, Moshe Ya’alon, the Israeli defense minister, was denied a visit with Joe Biden, John Kerry and Susan Rice. Only Chuck Hagel, U.S. secretary of defense, welcomed him to the Pentagon with brief formalities and Samantha Power, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was present to meet with him. Yet the Associated Press has claimed the Ya’alon was lucky to meet with Power, as the order to refuse the meeting had been issued late.

The reason for American officials’ coldness towards the Israeli defense minister was his previous comments in regard to the U.S. secretary of state. Apparently, both sides have encountered serious disagreements over the peace process. While Kerry considers the Netanyahu administration at fault for the failure of his efforts to negotiate a compromise between the Israelis and Palestinians, Ya’alon has said that it would be better if they just hurried up and gave Kerry a Nobel Prize already so he’d leave [Israel] alone. An American official was reported to have said that no American ally was as ungrateful as Israel.

Another important issue is Netanyahu’s opposition to the negotiations process between the U.S. and Iran and the possibility of reaching some kind of deal [over the nuclear issue].

The evidence for this is in the references Goldberg has made as to why American officials used the word “chickenshit” to describe Netanyahu. He reminds [his readers] that once in 2010 and another time in 2012, Netanyahu and Ehud Barak, the Israeli defense minster at the time, stirred up the American public’s fear that Israel was preparing to attack Iranian nuclear sites. The U.S. government then played upon this fear of a war brewing — and the possibility of it spreading to other countries — in order to justify imposing harsh sanctions on Iran.

But now, very few people have such a fear. Goldberg, who dedicated a 2010 issue of The Atlantic to the subject of Israel’s preparation for war with Iran, now has heard from American officials that Netanyahu is a coward who is bluffing and does not have the leadership skills to attack Iran. It is this very fact which has allowed the Americans increased flexibility in the Iran nuclear talks and [the opportunity] to take a more reconciliatory approach to the negotiations table.

American-Israeli relations have hit a definite low point, and things could get noticeably worse. To whatever extent America’s dwindling support of the Israeli regime at the U.N. this coming year could strain the relationship between the two sides even further, the prospect of a nuclear deal between Iran and the U.S. is of more immediate consequence. For now, Netanyahu wants to block the nuclear deal by exerting his influence on Congress and the American people, thus bypassing the Obama administration entirely.

*Translator’s Note: The article presents this as a direct quotation, but the actual quotation from the AIPAC 2012 speech reads as follows: “That is why Israel must always have the ability to defend itself, by itself, against any threat.”