US relations with Israel have been testy for months now, and are getting dramatically worse after a week of back-and-forth jibes over the Israeli settlement expansions, and a top US official calling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “chickenshit.”

Israeli officials are furious, and many US Congressmen are up in arms about the comment, and the White House is trying to distance itself from the specific comment, albeit not the sentiment itself.

“We think such comments are inappropriate and counter-productive,” insisted Obama spokesman Alistair Baskey, though the White House also reiterated its opposition to Israeli settlement expansion, which is the source of the comment in the first place.

The official, who was not named, said Netanyahu was a “chickenshit” who was too afraid of political fallout to make concessions on the settlement expansion to make a peace deal with the Palestinians. Though Netanyahu condemned the comment, he reiterated his determination to keep expanding settlements, and won’t make any concessions on peace.