Obama administration officials regard Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as "myopic, entitled, [and] untrustworthy," according to a New Yorker report out this week.
The article, which will appear in the publication’s December 21 issue, also conveys a largely negative portrayal of the administration’s attitude toward Netanyahu, and particularly the relationship between the prime minister and Obama’s Secretary of State John Kerry.
"American officials speak of Netanyahu as myopic, entitled, untrustworthy, routinely disrespectful toward the president, and focussed solely on short-term political tactics to keep his right-wing constituency in line," the article, penned by the publication’s editor David Remnick, reads.
Kerry, who has long been pushing for a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, told the publication in an interview for the piece that he believes Israel will become a "unitary state that is an impossible entity to manage" if it does not agree to negotiate such a solution. He also said that Israel could become "one big fortress."
"It would be good for Israel; it’d be great for the Palestinians; it’d be great for the region. People would make so much money," Kerry argued. "There’d be so many jobs created. There could be peace. And you would be stronger for it. Because nobody that I know or have met in the West Bank is anxious to have jihadis come in."
"The alternative is you sit there and things just get worse," Kerry continued. "There will be more Hezbollah. There will be more rockets. And they’ll all be pointed in one direction. And there will be more people on the border. And what happens then? You’re going to be one big fortress?"
The secretary of State is also described as feeling exasperated with Netanyahu for several reasons, including "the injustice of settlement building in the West Bank" and "the way he employs Yitzhak Molcho, his lawyer and confidant, to stifle even the most inconsequential negotiation." State Department aides were reportedly the source of details about Kerry’s "exasperation."
The article also more broadly characterizes the relationship between the Obama administration and Netanyahu as "sour."
"The frustration with the Israelis on a lot of issues has been sky-high," a senior U.S. official is quoted as saying about the attitudes at the White House and the State Department.
Kerry said that he could not envision an "end" to the State of Israel but conveyed that he has little idea of what a two-state solution would look like.
"What is it going to be like, is the question. Will it be a democracy? Will it be a Jewish state? Or will it be a unitary state with two systems, or some draconian treatment of Palestinians, because to let them vote would be to dilute the Jewish state? I don’t know," Kerry said.
"I have no answer to that. But the problem is, neither do they. Neither do the people who are supposed to be providing answers to this. It is not an answer to simply continue to build in the West Bank and to destroy the homes of the other folks you’re trying to make peace with and pretend that that’s a solution."