“Chickensh–t” is the word an aide at the State Department is using to describe Prime Minister Netanyahu, according to Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic. Another Obama administration official calls the Israeli premier a “coward.” The officials lacked the courage to speak on the record, but if Mr. Goldberg reported they said it, you can take it to the bank. Another adjective the Atlantic legman says he’s heard used about Mr. Netanyahu is “aspergery,” meaning having difficulties with social intercourse. This about a leader who, in Mr. Netanyahu, has kept together a long-term coalition government in the planet’s liveliest parliamentary democracy. At least Secretary of State Kerry hasn’t likened Mr. Netanyahu to Genghis Khan.

The fault for “this breakdown in relations” lies, Mr. Goldberg reckons, with Mr. Netanyahu, who, the reporter’s sources tell him, has “written off” the Obama administration and “plans to speak directly to Congress and the American people should an Iran nuclear deal be reached.” It seems that Mr. Netanyahu intends to fight on what the Sun has called the most dangerous ground in the Middle East, namely the no-man’s-land between the White House and the Congress. Mr. Netanyahu has entered this minefield before, addressing Joint Meetings of Congress in 1996 after the Republican Newt Gingrich became Speaker of the House and in 2011 after John Boehner did the same.