War of Words: Israeli PM Netanyahu is 'Chickenshit, Recalcitrant, Myopic, and Pompous,' Says Top Obama Official

When it comes to nasty names being bombarded at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, there will perhaps be no match to this one.

A senior Obama administration official is said to have recently described the Israeli PM with various offensive adjectives, the most important one being: "Chickenshit", Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic reported.

The list of the rhetorical and bombastic words used by the unnamed official, to describe Netanyahu further included 'recalcitrant', 'myopic', 'reactionary', 'obtuse', 'blustering', 'pompous', and 'Aspergery,' the reporter notes.

"The good thing about Netanyahu is that he's scared to launch wars," the official was quoted as saying while elaborating on the reason behind calling the leader of an ally a "chickenshit."

"The bad thing about him is that he won't do anything to reach an accommodation with the Palestinians or with the Sunni Arab states."

"The only thing he's interested in is protecting himself from political defeat. He's not (Yitzhak) Robin, he's no (Ariel) Sharon, he's certainly no (Menachem) Begin. He's got no guts," he said referring to previous leaders.

The United States and the Israel are officially allies and the Obama administration has recently supported the shelling against Palestinians, calling the thousands of deaths as "collateral damages".

But this comment is representative of the "gloves-off manner in which American and Israeli officials now talk about each other behind closed doors, and is yet another sign that relations between the Obama and Netanyahu governments have moved toward a full-blown crisis," the reporter writes.

Another official was quoted by the same writer as saying that the Obama administration believes that Netanyahu was a "coward" on the issue of Iran's nuclear threat. The US no longer believes that he would order a pre-emptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, the official reportedly said.

This comes after the Obama administration, earlier this month, denied reports that the government would evade Congress on a nuclear arms deal with Iran.

"The notion that we are trying to avoid congressional consultation and input on this is preposterous," White House Press Secretary Eric Schultz had said at that time, the Washington Examiner notes.