Netanyahu at Dohany Street Synagogue in Budapest
Netanyahu at Dohany Street Synagogue in BudapestHaim Zach/GPO

The EU envoy to Israel fired back at Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Thursday, after he called them "crazy" in a leaked conversation with Eastern European leaders the previous day.

"Ties between Israel and Europe run deep" wrote EU Ambassador to Israel Lars Faaborg-Anderson on Twitter. "We will continue to develop our relationship with Israel in both the technological and political spheres."

He also cautioned against ignoring the influence the Israeli-Palestinian conflict played on Israel's relationship with the continent, saying that "relations also need to be based on joint values, such as human rights and the Two-State Solution."

Netanyahu was caught on an open microphone Wednesday laying into the EU at a meeting with Eastern European leaders, blasting them for basing their ties on Israel on advancements with the Palestinian Arabs.

“The European Union is the only association of countries in the world that conditions relations with Israel, [a country] which produces technology in every area, on political conditions. The only ones! Nobody does it." said Netanyahu.

The Israeli PM also warned that Europe's open borders policy with middle eastern refugees was an existential security risk. "I think Europe has to decide if it wants to live and thrive or if it wants to shrivel and disappear,” he said.

The prime minister's trip has been touted as opening up a new era of positive relations between what is increasingly being seen as a 4-country Eastern European bloc and Israel. The leaders of those four countries have not accepted the EU decisions on allowing free entrance to migrants, nor the EU's anti-Israel declarations.