A meeting last month to discuss intelligence matters between the United States and Israel turned confrontational when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lambasted Dan Shapiro, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, for what he believes to be an unsatisfactory American position on Iran’s nuclear program, according to Republican Congressman Mike Rogers who attended the sit down.
“There was no doubt. You could not walk out of that meeting and think that they had not lost their patience with this Administration,” Rogers, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, told WJR radio host Frank Beckmann in Michigan.
When Beckmann asked Rogers if there was a shouting match between Netanyahu and Shapiro, something that had been reported in Israeli media last week, Rogers said “there were elevated concerns on behalf of the Israelis”.
“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,” Rogers added.
Netanyahu’s concerns were geared towards the Obama administration’s reluctance to state the White House’s “red lines” on Iran’s nuclear program, which if crossed, would call for the use of U.S. military force against Iran. Rogers does not think the Israeli or Iranian government’s believe that President Obama will use force to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
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