Israel and US ‘one family,’ Netanyahu says

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said he would not respond to comments from a senior Obama administration official who called him “chickenshit,” saying it would not be “appropriate.”

{mosads}“Look, I’m not going to deal with anonymous sources that issue all sorts of critical statements,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” 

“I will say this: I think the relationship between Israel and the United States is very, very strong,” he added. “I mean, there is bipartisan support for Israel, which we appreciate. And not only that, I think support for Israel among the American people is at an all-time high.”

The administration official said in an October interview published in The Atlantic that the “good thing about Netanyahu is that he’s scared to launch wars.”

Netanyahu pointed to the beheadings of Americans by the Islamic and anti-American protests in Iran as evidence that “one state after another is collapsing” in the Middle East.

“People instinctively understand that Israel is America’s best ally in the Middle East. The best ally of the United States. And you know, in Israel we think America is our best ally too,” Netanyahu added. “There’s a very, very strong bond there. And yes, we can have disagreements between governments. That happens in the best of families, but we are one family.”

Netanyahu also addressed the release of an ISIS video purporting to show the execution of American aid worker Peter Kassig, saying the terror group “has to be defeated.”

“First, let me say that we see these horrors, this additional atrocity, and the people of Israel are with you, we’re with the family, we’re with all the American people who understand the savagery that we’re all up against,” Netanyahu said.