Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday declined to comment on an Obama aide calling him “chickenshit,” instead promoting the Israeli-American relationship as “one family.”
But he warned the U.S. against enlisting the help of Iran to combat the Islamic terrorist threat in the Middle East.
“Iran is not your ally, “ Netanyahu said on “Face the Nation.” “Iran is not your friend. Iran is your enemy. It’s not your partner. Iran is committed to the destruction of Israel.”
Netanyahu pointed to “bipartisan support” for Israel and American support that “is at an all-time high.”
He downplayed tensions with the Obama administration and dodged responding to the insult sent his way from an unnamed White House official recently.
“Look, I’m not going to deal with anonymous sources that issue all sorts of critical statements,” he said. “I will say this. I think the relationship between Israel and the United States is very, very strong. 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.”
He added, “Yes, we can have disagreements between governments,” Netanyahu said. “That happens in the best of families. But we are one family.”
Netanyahu said he remains opposed to a nuclear reduction deal with Iran that would allow the country to continue to enrich uranium.
“It’s not merely preventing Iran from having nuclear weapons today, it’s to prevent them … from having nuclear weapons tomorrow,” Netanyahu told host Bob Schieffer. “That means that Iran should not be left with the residual capacity to enrich uranium that you need to have an atomic bomb, nor to have the long-range ballistic missiles — the ICBMs, intercontinental ballistic missile — to launch them.”
