White House Distances Itself From Netanyahu Comments

The White House is still attempting to be diplomatic — at least publicly —when it comes to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s scheduled visit to speak in front of the United States Congress in March.

 

This morning on Meet the Press, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough responded to an article in Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, from Friday that quoted a senior U.S. official as saying “[Netanyahu] spat in our face publicly.”

 

The source quoted in the article went on to say that the prime minister “ought to remember that President Obama has a year and a half left to his presidency, and that there will be a price.”

 

McDonough denied that the anonymous source was him or President Obama, “I can guarantee that it’s not me, not the president, and not what we believe.” “We think that, as a general matter, we, the United States, has stayed out of internal politics in the countries of our closest allies,” he said.

 

Read More: Diplomatic ‘Spat’: White House Distances Itself From Netanyahu Comments – NBC News.com