Acrimony with the Israeli leader recently spilled into the public, when Netanyahu aired a video message in English claiming the U.S. was withholding weapons from Israel. The Israeli prime minister doubled down on the complaints in an interview published Friday by the online publication Punchbowl News.
There has been a great slowdown in the provision of the important ammunition and weapons,” Netanyahu said.
U.S. officials said Friday that they were mystified by Netanyahu’s comments. “There are no bottlenecks,” Matthew Miller, the State Department spokesperson, said Thursday.
Current and former U.S. officials said Netanyahu’s comments appeared to be driven by Israeli political calculations and insisted that the administration hasn’t delayed any weapons, except for a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs the White House has said is under review because of concerns over civilian casualties in Gaza.
Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli diplomat, said that the prime minister’s behavior is part of a pattern of instigating spats and confrontations with the administration to show he is standing up to the U.S. “This is 100% manufactured,” Pinkas said.
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