Netanyahu "Loses It" At US Ambassador Over Obama's Weak Iran Policy

Last week, the Jerusalem Post reported that Israeli PM Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu "lost it" at US Ambassador US Ambassador Dan Shapiro over President  Obama's handling of Iran's nuclear program, saying "time has run out" for diplomacy. Present at the outburst was Congressman Mike Rogers.

After the incident hit the papers Ambassador  Shapiro dismissed the reports,

“That’s a very silly story,” Shapiro said. “The published account of that meeting did not reflect what actually occurred in the meeting. The conversations were entirely friendly and professional. They always are. I always speak respectfully with the prime minister, just as the prime minister always speaks respectfully with me. And that really characterizes all of the dialogue between our governments.”

But Congressman Rogers appeared on WJR's  Frank Beckmann show and told a totally contrary story. He said the meeting, originally scheduled to be a discussion of intelligence and technical issues between himself and Bibi went out of control when Netanyahu began to flip out at Ambassador Shapiro over Obama's Iran policy.  Rogers described the tenor of the meeting as:

"Very tense. Some very sharp... exchanges and it was very, very clear the Israelis had lost their patience with the (Obama) Administration. There was no doubt. You could not walk out of that meeting and think that they had not lost their patience with this Administration. We’ve had sharp exchanges with other heads of state and in intelligence services and other things, but nothing at that level that I’ve seen in all my time where people were clearly that agitated, clearly that worked up about a particular issue where there was a very sharp exchange,”

Netanyahu is upset that Obama is reluctant the White House’s “red lines” on Iran’s nuclear program, which if crossed, would call for the use of  force against Iran.  Rogers thinks that neither  Israel or Iran believe Obama will use force to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

“Certainly when you walk out of that meeting you get the feeling that they [Israel] are finally at wits’ end, and that’s what concerned me about the meeting,”

Rogers was asked how long the Israelis believe Tehran is from being able to placed weaponized uranium into a missile

“The Israelis believe it’s short I mean, Netanyahu made it very clear he thought it was a matter of weeks. If they decide to do the dash it could be four weeks to eight weeks, which is a month or two months. Our intelligence analysts believe it would be a little longer than that. But the problem is, nobody really knows for sure. But we do know, and I think everyone agrees, including, you know, our European intelligence allies and other things that they are clearly marching down this road.”

Obama keeps saying there is no daylight between his administration and Israel on Iran, but Rogers believes that this president's lack of a backbone in setting a clear red line for Iran makes an Israeli attack on Iran more likely.

The Atlantic has a transcript of the entire interview.