Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was reportedly taken aback on Monday by Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman’s “clarification” of recent comments some say amounted to a de facto apology.
Last Friday Liberman caught both the Israeli Prime Minister and American senior officials flatfooted when the Defense Ministry issued a statement comparing last year’s Iran nuclear deal to the 1938 Munich agreement with Adolf Hitler.
The Prime Minister’s Office scrambled to downplay the statement, hinting at the apparent lack of coordination between Netanyahu and his coalition partner.
On Monday, however, Liberman made a sudden about-face with a “clarification” walking back Friday’s statement.
According to a report by Channel 2, the Prime Minister’s Office was again caught off guard by the Defense Ministry, whose behavior surprised both Netanyahu and White House officials.
The Prime Minister and Defense Minister held no discussion over the matter following the original statement and the prior to its retraction, and Netanyahu reportedly heard of both Friday’s statement and Monday’s clarification from news reports in the media.