Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's chief of policy planning Ron Dermer on Thursday said that he would be leaving his post in several months, the NRG Maariv news web site reported on Thursday. He has been Netanyahus senior adviser since 2009. A source in the Prime Minister's Office told Israel Hayom that "Dermer did not announce his resignation," but the source would not talk about Dermer's future plans in the PMO. Florida-born Dermer, considered one of the closest aides to the prime minister, will be leaving his post after the expected visit on March 20 by U.S. President Barack Obama. Dermer had been touted as a possible replacement to Ambassador Michael Oren at the coveted Washington, D.C. embassy, but that is now no longer on the table, according to the NRG report. Dermer was born in Miami, and both his father and brother served as mayors of Miami Beach. Prior to his appointment as Netanyahus top adviser, Dermer served as Israels economic attach in Washington a post for which he had to forfeit his American citizenship. Dermer, a Florida-born conservative, reportedly planned Republican Mitt Romneys trip to Israel last summer during the U.S. presidential campaign. For three years, he wrote a column for the Jerusalem Post and, along with former Soviet dissident and Israeli politician Natan Sharansky, co-authored the book, "The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror." According to a profile of him by Tablet Magazine, Dermer "has done more to shape Israels relationship with the United States, its Arab neighbors, and the Palestinians over the past few years than any man aside from the prime minister himself." "Bibi doesnt move an inch without talking to him," said one person who has been in meetings with both men, about Dermer's influence on the prime minister. Dermer's reported resignation comes three days after the resignation of Cabinet Secretary Zvi Hauser.
NRG said Dermer, 41 and a father of four, was resigning due to tiredness from the heavy workload of the job.
