White House Director of Political Strategy David Simas. Photo: Screenshot.

White House Director of Political Strategy David Simas on Wednesday morning avoided congratulating Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his decisive election win yesterday and instead applauded the “Israeli people” for the election, The Weekly Standard reported.

“We want to congratulate the Israeli people for the democratic process for the election that they just engaged in with all the parties that engaged in that election,” Simas said during an appearance on CNN. “As you know now, the hard work of coalition building begins.”

“Sometimes that takes a couple of weeks,” he continued. “And we’re going to give space to the formation of that coalition government, and we’re not going to weigh in one way or another except to say that the United States and Israel have a historic and close relationship and that will continue going forward.”

The remarks follow Tuesday night’s White House comments, where spokesman Josh Earnest said President Obama will work “closely” with the winner of the Israeli election.

Watch the video of Simas’s remarks below: