I barred Netanyahu from State Dept., Baker says

James Baker, a former secretary of State, didn’t seem troubled during an interview on Sunday by recent anonymous comments from Obama administration officials knocking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.

{mosads}Baker said that administration officials calling Netanyahu “chickenshit” in The Atlantic couldn’t be a positive for U.S-Israeli relations. 

But he also noted that he had his own issues with Netanyahu when he was secretary of State under President George H.W. Bush.

“These kinds of things can happen from time to time,” Baker said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“There are always tensions in all foreign policy relationships, even with allies. But it can be overcome.”

Baker said that Netanyahu – then a senior Israeli official on foreign policy – had said that “American policy in the Middle East is based on lies and distortions” during the George H.W. Bush administration.  

“I barred him from the State Department,” Baker said. “That may not be widely known.”