Netanyahu says it was ‘absolutely necessary’ to publicly air criticism of White House

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells the US-based Punchbowl news site that his public criticism of the US earlier this week was “absolutely necessary.”

Asked about his controversial video message criticizing the White House over what he said was a holdup in weapons shipments, Netanyahu says that “we began to see that we had some significant problems emerging a few months ago. And in fact, we tried, in many, many quiet conversations between our officials and American officials, and between me and the president to try to iron out this diminution of supply.”

The prime minister claimed however that he was not “able to solve it” even after raising it with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his visit to Israel, and therefore “I felt that airing it was absolutely necessary after months of quiet conversation that did not solve the problem.”