Israel’s defense minister has apologized to the United States after harshly dismissing Secretary of State John Kerry’s efforts to negotiate a Middle East peace deal. Speaking to an Israeli newspaper, Moshe Ya’alon said: “Kerry has come to us determined and is acting out of an incomprehensible obsession and a messianic feeling. [He] cannot teach me a single thing about the conflict with the Palestinians. The only thing that can save us is if Kerry wins the Nobel Prize and leaves us alone.” In Washington, State Department spokesperson Marie Harf called Ya’alon’s statement “offensive and inappropriate.”

Marie Harf: “To question his motives, to distort his proposals is not something we would expect from the defense minister of a close ally. And again, if accurate, I think we’ve been very clear that we would find these comments offensive and inappropriate.”

Ya’alon’s dismissal of Kerry comes amidst the Israeli government’s ongoing expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, despite ostensibly negotiating over the creation of a Palestinian state there.