US officials said to call Netanyahu ‘myopic, entitled, untrustworthy’

A profile of John Kerry in The New Yorker touches on the relationship between the US secretary of state and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is often described as Kerry’s friend.

The piece, written by the magazine’s editor in chief, David Remnick, quotes “American officials” who describe Netanyahu as “myopic, entitled, untrustworthy, routinely disrespectful toward the president, and focused solely on short-term political tactics to keep his right-wing constituency in line.”

The piece goes on to describe the “sources of Kerry’s exasperation with Netanyahu.” Quoting State Department aides, it says these “range from the injustice of settlement building in the West Bank to the way he employs Yitzhak Molcho, his lawyer and confidant, to stifle even the most inconsequential negotiation.”

Remnick quotes Kerry as saying that, in 2010, Netanyahu balked at plans to revive the peace process between Israel and Syria, despite assurances from President Bashar Assad that “he was ready to make a deal.”

Kerry said he even had a letter that Assad “wrote and signed proposing a structure by which he was willing to recognize Israel, have an embassy there, make peace, deal with the Golan, et cetera.”

But Netanyahu, he told Remnick, was unwilling to move forward with talks: “Bibi came to Washington, and one of the first things out of his mouth in the Oval Office was ‘I can’t do this. I’m not going to — I just can’t.'”

Click here for the full piece.