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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in damage control after his defence minister reportedly said John Kerry’s bid for a peace plan was motivated by a “misplaced obsession and messianic fervour.”

“Secretary of State John Kerry — who has come to us determined and is acting out of an incomprehensible obsession and a messianic feeling — cannot teach me a single thing about the conflict with the Palestinians,” Defence minister Moshe Ya’alon said, according to Yediot Ahronot.

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“The only thing that will ‘save’ us is for John Kerry to win a Nobel Prize and leave us alone.”

State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki said the alleged remarks “are offensive and inappropriate especially given all that the United States is doing to support Israel’s security needs.”

Kerry and his team, “have been working day and night to try to promote a secure peace for Israel, because of the Secretary’s deep concern for Israel’s future,” Psaki said in an statement. “To question his motives and distort his proposals is not something we would expect from the defence minister of a close ally.”