A senior Israeli diplomat in the United States has said Israel’s policies toward Washington are causing damage to strategic ties with its closes ally.

The blistering attack was launched by Israel’s consul-general in Boston Nadav Tamir who sent a blunt and extremely critical letter about Israel’s policies toward the US to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

Tamir’s three-page letter was entitled "Sad passing thoughts on Israeli-US relations”, according to a report by Israel’s Channel 10 television on Thursday.

Tamir said Israel is now being seen in the United States as a disobedient country.

"The Americans are trying to limit the publicity of disagreements, while we are the source of making these differences public," Tamir was quoted as writing.

"The damage in the American public opinion’s support is already apparent in recent public opinion polls, and the damage is expected to be even worse."

The US President Barack Obama and the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have recently clashed over the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The United States has demanded that Israel halts all its settlement construction immediately. Tel Aviv, however, says it will continue building within existing settlements to accommodate population growth.

Under the US-backed "roadmap" peace plan, Israel is committed to halting the expansion of Jewish settlements in the territories occupied in the 1967 war. The new Israeli government led by the Likud party, however, says the freeze would not include the construction projects underway to meet the needs caused by “natural growth”.

(Press TV)