Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu may be feted at home for his role in freeing captive soldier Gilad Shalit, but abroad, world leaders are barely managing to hide their disdain for the media-savvy prime minister. Just how much Netanyahu is failing to win the respect of his global peers emerged on Tuesday after a French website published remarks by President Nicolas Sarkozy, who described him as a “liar” during a private conversation with US President Barack Obama at the G20 summit in Cannes last week. “I can’t stand him anymore, he’s a liar,” Sarkozy said in French in remarks which were inadvertently transmitted over the translation system and heard by reporters.
“You may be sick of him, but me, I have to deal with him every day,” Obama replied.
The remarks were first reported by Arret Sur Images online news site, with the details confirmed by a number of journalists contacted by AFP. It was not the first time world leaders have expressed disappointment or even anger with Netanyahu, with most of the frustration focused on the lack of progress in resolving the conflict with the Palestinians. In February, German Chancellor Angela Merkel reportedly lashed out at him after he criticised Berlin for backing a UN Security Council resolution condemning settlements.
“How dare you?” Merkel told Netanyahu in remarks reported by Israel’s Haaretz newspaper.
“You are the one who disappointed us. You haven’t made a single step to advance peace.” The two had another difficult conversation last month, in which Merkel questioned his commitment to restarting talks after Israel approved a swathe of new homes in annexed east Jerusalem. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has also urged him to show “leadership” and in May, he irked Obama by publicly lecturing him in the Oval Office on the historic struggles of the Jewish people — live on television.
Shortly afterwards, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates reportedly criticised Netanyahu, describing him as “ungrateful,” and saying Washington had “received nothing” in exchange for its support of Israel’s security needs, in remarks published by a respected US columnist.
Even during his previous term in office (1996-1999), Netanyahu was not fully trusted, with US president Bill Clinton saying he had reneged on pledges to withdraw from occupied Palestinian land, torpedoing peace efforts, with the White House accusing him of failing to honour commitments made “at the highest level.” And around the same time, Britain’s foreign office took an even blunter view of the Israeli leader, with officials nicknaming him in 1998 as “the armour-plated bullshitter” according to memoirs published earlier this year by Alastair Campbell, former communications chief at 10 Downing Street.
