An anonymous U.S. official's reported description of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a "chickenshit," or worthless coward, drew a sharp response Wednesday from the Israeli leader — no stranger to acrimony with the Obama administration.
The American broadside, in an interview in The Atlantic magazine, followed a month of heated exchanges between the Netanyahu government and Washington over settlement-building in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, which Palestinians seek as the capital of a future state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
"The thing about Bibi is, he's a chickenshit," the unidentified official was quoted as saying, using Netanyahu's nickname and a slang insult certain to redden the ears of the U.S.-educated former commando.