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Like many others, I suspect that the senior official was Obama himself. This is evidenced by several things. Obama has frequently used Atlantic correspondent Jeffrey Goldberg as a mouthpiece, giving the reliably sycophantic correspondent various interviews and scoops over the years. Predictably, Goldberg lays the blame for the unprecedented schism between the United States and Israel at the feet of Netanyahu, not the guy going around throwing out schoolyard insults. Secondly, the administration’s walk-back of the comment has been decidedly limited for such a case. Usually, the offending official would be sacrificed in the name of maintaining diplomatic niceties, and...

US President Barack Obama's administration is coping with underwhelming performance on various fronts according to officials cited in the New York Times on Friday, who suggested he may replace some senior administration officials - including US Secretary of State John Kerry. "There is an inflection point in every presidency, and this certainly is a logical one, if the president feels he might be better served by some replacements on his team,” Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told the paper. Citing the Ebola crisis in Africa that has spread to a few isolated cases...

Washington - Officials in the Obama administration are attempting to quell commotion over whether relations with the government of Israel are now in crisis. The US says they are not. But for the first time, in a determined, consistent fashion, administration officials are also allowing longstanding concerns over public rebukes, military tactics and policies on the ground— namely, settlement activity— to seep into the public...

“Chickensh--t” is the word an aide at the State Department is using to describe Prime Minister Netanyahu, according to Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic. Another Obama administration official calls the Israeli premier a “coward.” The officials lacked the courage to speak on the record, but if Mr. Goldberg reported they said it, you can take it to the bank. Another adjective the Atlantic legman says he’s heard used about Mr. Netanyahu is “aspergery,” meaning having difficulties with social intercourse. This about a leader who, in Mr. Netanyahu, has kept together a long-term coalition government in the planet’s liveliest parliamentary democracy....

The Atlantic’s Jeffery Goldberg has written a piece detailing the deteriorating relationship between Israel and the Obama administration. The chief purpose of Goldberg’s piece is to humiliate Benjamin Netanyahu. None of this is especially shocking, considering the antagonism the administration has shown towards the Jewish State from the start. It’s the sort of antipathy Goldberg identified as Jewish paranoia back in 2008. Goldberg begins his piece with the following: The other day I was talking to a senior Obama administration official about the foreign leader who seems to frustrate the White House and the State Department the most. ‘The thing...

<p>Washington — October 29, 2014 … From Ebola, Benghazi, Obamacare, IRS, ISIS to finding the right curse words to call Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, Obama just can’t get it right!</p> <p>Reporter Jeffrey Goldberg has quoted an anonymous Obama Administration official as calling Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu a “chickensh*t” because Bibi refuses to weaken Israel’s security.</p>

Tom Cotton, the Republican candidate for Senate from Arkansas, is calling on President Obama to renounce the "vulgar" attack on Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu which was expressed by an anonymous administration official in a recent Atlantic article. "I’m appalled at recent media reports suggesting the Obama administration is seeking ‘détente’ with Iran, while unnamed administration officials disparage Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with vulgar ad hominem attacks. I call upon President Obama to renounce these reports and disclose the names of these officials and fire them. Iran remains our worst enemy and Israel our closest ally. The Obama administration’s...

The White House on Wednesday sought to tamp down the controversy over a magazine piece that detailed deep tensions between the U.S. and Israel – and quoted an unnamed senior Obama administration official calling the Israeli leader a “chicken****.” Administration officials, including White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, did not deny the quote. They also did not signal there would be any robust effort to find out who said it. But Alistair Baskey, spokesman for the National Security Council, said the criticism does not reflect how the rest of the administration views Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Certainly that's not the...

What does the Obama administration hope to accomplish by trashing Israel in the press? This is the most important question after an apparently coordinated wave of anonymous quotes welled up in Tuesday’s press. Relations with Israel have steadily worsened over the course of Obama’s presidency, and little of what was said was out of step with some views being expressed in broader policy circles. But why say it, and why now? The wave began Monday night, with Foreign Policy’s Gopal Ratnam saying that the White House was “undermining” Israeli defense minister Moshe Yaalon during his recent visit to the United...

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration rejects the characterization of Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu as "chickenshit," an insult to the premier's leadership and character leveled anonymously by a senior administration official on Tuesday, as reported by the Atlantic. "Certainly that's not the administration's view, and we think such comments are inappropriate and counter-productive," National Security Council spokesperson Alistair Baskey said in an e-mail. "Prime Minister Netanyahu and the president have forged an effective partnership, and consult closely and frequently, including earlier this month when the president hosted the prime minister in the Oval Office." The quote in the piece published by...

ED HENRY, FOX NEWS: On that question, Ron raised a good point about the leaks in a grand jury. The administration has spoken out on them. The administration also has a long track record over the many months about complaining about leaks involving national security. We've seen threats to reporters like James Risen, who could potentially be thrown into jail over leaks to him. James Rosen's phone records gone through because of leaks to him. My question going back to the Israel story is, why then are you kind of sloughing off this idea that you kind don't care who...

SEATTLE (AP) -- An Army lieutenant in Washington state is expected to go public Wednesday with his refusal to deploy to Iraq. Attorney Eric Seitz tells Seattle's K-O-M-O Radio that Lieutenant Ehren Watada (wah-TAH'-dah) opposes the war and first asked to be re-assigned and also asked to be allowed to resign his commission. Seitz says after both requests were denied, Watada told his superiors he wouldn't go to Iraq. Two anti-war groups say the soldier will announce his refusal at a news conference in Tacoma. A Fort Lewis spokeswoman had no comment.