Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday lashed out at a report that an unnamed senior Obama administration had called him a “chickenshit,” saying that he is being attacked for trying to defend his country.

“Our vital interests, first and foremost our security and a unified Jerusalem, are not the uppermost interests of the unnamed officials who attacked our government and me personally,” the prime minister said in a speech to the Knesset. “I’m being attacked simply because I defend the State of Israel … Despite all the attacks against me, I will keep defending our country and Israel’s people.”

Netanyahu’s office had previously released a statement that the Israeli leader would not bow to “pressure” from the U.S.

“Netanyahu will continue to uphold the security interests of Israel and the historical rights of the Jewish people in Jerusalem, and no amount of pressure will change that,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

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The response came after a report in The Atlantic that a “senior Obama administration official” called Netanyahu “a chickenshit,” rhetoric that will likely only inflame tensions between the administration and Israel.

In a statement following the report, a National Security Council spokeswoman decried the comments from the administration official.

“We think such comments are inappropriate and counterproductive,” Alistair Baskey said in a statement. “Prime Minister Netanyahu and the president have forged an effective partnership, and consult closely and frequently, including earlier this month when the president hosted the Prime Minister in the Oval Office.”

Later Wednesday, House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Eliot Engel also condemned the remarks and said leaks about U.S.-Israeli tensions are causing harm.

“I was shocked and disappointed on reading the comments in The Atlantic,” the New York Democrat said in a statement. “I think it is counterproductive and unprofessional for administration officials to air their dirty laundry in such a public way. I am getting tired of hearing about the leaks and denials.”

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In the Atlantic story by Jeffrey Goldberg, the administration official said Netanyahu is only interested in political self-preservation. “The good thing about Netanyahu is that he’s scared to launch wars,” the official said. “The bad thing about him is that he won’t do anything to reach an accommodation with the Palestinians or with the Sunni Arab states. The only thing he’s interested in is protecting himself from political defeat.” The official later added that Netanyahu has “no guts.”

The report said that a second senior administration official expressed agreement with the criticism. That official also called the prime minister a “coward” with regard to Iran’s nuclear program and said he is “bluffing” when calling for a pre-emptive strike on that country to prevent it from reaching nuclear capacity.

Israeli Economy Minister Naftali Bennett criticized the administration following the report: “Such severe curse words against the Israeli prime minister are harmful to millions of Israeli citizens and Jews worldwide.” He added that the administration “intends to throw Israel under the bus” if the Atlantic report is accurate.

President Barack Obama and Netanyahu had a friendly meeting at the White House earlier this month, and Israeli officials have lauded U.S. airstrikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. But the relationship between the two administrations has frayed in recent months, largely due to disagreements over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Reports indicated that Israeli officials spoke critically of Secretary of State John Kerry and his attempted peace efforts through Turkey and Qatar. The White House criticized Israel for shelling a United Nations facility in Gaza and on several occasions expressed concerns about the high number of civilian casualties from Israeli airstrikes.