Jeffrey Goldberg publishes complaint from PM’s aide over unflattering column

Jewish American columnist Jeffrey Goldberg posts online a letter he received from Netanyahu’s spokesman David Keyes in response to a column criticizing the PM.

Goldberg posts the entire response on The Atlantic website, under the headline “The Unbearable Smallness of Benjamin Netanyahu, Cont’d” — a reference to the original article’s title “The Unbearable Smallness of Benjamin Netanyahu.” The headline given by Keyes to his missive is “The Unbearable Misunderstanding of Goldberg.”

In the response, Keyes addresses the points raised in Goldberg’s original article, accusing the respected columnist of making “spurious” claims against Netanyahu, whom he says “remains fully committed to his vision of peace based on two states for two peoples where a demilitarized Palestinian state finally recognizes the Jewish State of Israel.”

Furthermore, Keyes says, Goldberg depicts the prime minister “as an obstacle to peace despite the evidence to the contrary” and even accuses him “of badly misplaying Iran.”

Keyes concludes by saying that, “Israel’s future has never been brighter. The real pessimist here is not Prime Minister Netanyahu—it’s Jeffrey Goldberg.”