A graphic shared on the official White House Twitter account on Wednesday that many say mocked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu only hurts American-Israeli relations, say two Republican members of Congress.
The White House tweeted out a graphic of an old-fashioned bomb as part of its argument for the success of the nuclear framework deal recently reached with Iran.
The cartoon bomb, complete with a lit fuse, is identical to a graphic used by Netanyahu in a speech before the U.N. General Assembly in which he warned about the dangers of Iran acquiring nuclear capablilty.
In the White House version, the fuse has been cut by a pair of scissors.
"This White House tweet is a desperate attempt to try to make lemonade out of uranium," New York Rep. Lee Zeldin said Thursday on
Fox News Channel's "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren."
President Barack Obama "lost" when Netanyahu won re-election last month, Zeldin said, and now he is trying to be the "schoolyard bully." Obama has made no secret he has sharp disagreements with Netanyahu, and former members of his own campaign were part of the effort to defeat Netanyahu in Israel.
Zeldin noted that Netanyahu is an Israeli military special forces combat veteran and said the prime minister is not afraid of name-calling.
"He is not scared of the White House Twitter feed. What he is scared of is Iran having a nuclear weapon," Zeldin said.
Florida Rep. Ron DeSantis, appearing later on the program, echoed Zeldin's comments.
"I think you need to get over whatever type of personal animosity you may have for another leader on that level and look at what the interests of our countries are," DeSantis said. "Prime Minister Netanyahu has a very small country, and this ayatollah says they want to wipe them off the map."
Netanyahu is right to challenge the deal if he sees it as a bad one, DeSantis said. For the White House to "needle" Netanyahu is bad for the two countries' relationship, he said.
"And I definitely don't think it's productive in terms of trying to get Congress to see things your way," he said.
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