Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said on Sunday that President Barack Obama should “get over his temper tantrum” over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“The president should get over it. Get over your temper tantrum, Mr. President, it’s time that we work together with our Israeli friends and try to stem this tide of ISIS and Iranian movement throughout the region, which is threatening the very fabric of the region. The least of your problems is what Bibi Netanyahu said during an election campaign,” McCain said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
On Monday, just before Israelis headed to the polls in an election, Netanyahu said that there would not be a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians while he was prime minister. While Netanyahu later tried to backtrack on those comments, Obama told The Huffington Post on Friday that the United States was operating under the assumption that Netanyahu did not support a two-state solution.
Obama also told HuffPost that he was deeply uncomfortable with the way that Netanyahu released a video on election day warning that Arab-Israelis were going to the polls “in droves.”
“We indicated that that kind of rhetoric was contrary to what is the best of Israel’s traditions. That although Israel was founded based on the historic Jewish homeland and the need to have a Jewish homeland, Israeli democracy has been premised on everybody in the country being treated equally and fairly,” Obama said. “And I think that that is what’s best about Israeli democracy. If that is lost, then I think that not only does it give ammunition to folks who don’t believe in a Jewish state, but it also I think starts to erode the meaning of democracy in the country.”
McCain, on the other hand, simply chalked Netanyahu’s comments up to the rhetoric of elections.
“If every politician were held to everything they said in a political campaign, obviously that would be a topic of long discussion,” McCain said. “Bibi’s rhetoric concerning an election campaign pales in comparison as to the direct threat to the United States of America concerning ISIS.”
“The president has his priorities so screwed up that it’s unbelievable,” he added.
Obama is also reportedly considering weakening support for Israel at the U.N. McCain said on Sunday that if that resolution passed, Congress should examine its funding for the United Nations.
