White House Hits Back Hard at Benjamin Netanyahu Over Jerusalem Settlements
The White House rejected criticism from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a withering response on Monday, accusing him of refusing to acknowledge how much help the United States has been to Israel over the years.
A long-time split between President Barack Obama and Netanyahu appeared to widen further after the Israeli leader’s visit to the White House last week.
Netanyahu, on the CBS program “Face the Nation” on Sunday, said U.S. criticism of an Israeli move for a new Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem was “against American values.”
At his daily briefing, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said: “It did seem odd for him to try to defend the actions of his government by saying our response did not reflect American values.
“The fact is American policy has been clear and unchanged under several administrations, both Democrat and Republican.”
Earnest added: “We oppose any unilateral actions that attempt to prejudge final status issues including the status of Jerusalem. These can only be legitimately determined through direct negotiations through the parties that this president has worked hard to try to facilitate.”
The White House statement was a lengthy defense of U.S. policy toward Israel, centered around the “American values” theme that Netanyahu raised.
“The fact is, when it comes to American values, it’s American values that lend this country’s unwavering support to Israel. It’s American values that have led us to fight for and secure funding to strengthen Israel’s security in tangible ways.”
Earnest said it was U.S. funding for Israel’s “Iron Dome” system that has prevented Hamas rockets from hitting their targets.
“It’s American values that have led us to fund and build an Iron Dome system that protected the lives of countless innocent Israeli citizens,” he said.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO