The flap over derogatory statements made about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by an unnamed White House official shows President Barack Obama's real views, and exhibits his foreign policy "incompetence" that has been reflected in strained relations with countries around the world, Charles Krauthammer told "Fox & Friends" on Thursday.
"There is no doubt that what we saw is an accurate reflection of what they think. That's the reason they won't offer an apology. Everybody knows it's how the president thinks about the Israeli leadership under (Israeli Finance Minister Yair) Lapid, under Bibi," said Krauthammer, a syndicated columnist, referencing the prime minister's nickname.
The Atlantic reported on Tuesday that a senior White House official called Netanyahu a "chickens..t" who was "scared to launch wars," adding he was only interested in "protecting himself from political defeat."
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Though the White House quickly backtracked the statement, Krauthammer said it was part of a larger issue about the Obama administration's inability to successfully navigate foreign policy, adding the U.S. had strained relations with Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, and with Egypt.
"The foreign policy of the U.S., no matter if you're a man of the left or a man on the right, however you see this, is at it's lowest ebb with a president who promised to improve relations" he said. "They are at their low ebb everywhere. This is a measure of his incompetence"
The tension between Obama and Netanyahu exhibited the "worst relations between administrations, Israeli and American, probably in 50 years," Krauthammer said, adding that Israel's prime minister was concerned with how the U.S. would approach negotiations with Iran over its nuclear weapons program.
"What the Israelis are worried about, more than anything else, is that Obama cuts a bad deal with Iran. The deadline is in three weeks. And, no one is sure what's going to happen," Krauthammer said.
"If there is a deal, Iran will be a threshold nuclear power, meaning it'll be three months away, four months away, at any time it wants in the future, of getting a nuke. And, that, for Israel, would be an existential threat," he said.
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