Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to appoint his close aide Ron Dermer as Israel's next ambassador to the United States and will announce his appointment soon, Army Radio reported exclusively on Friday morning.
According to the report, Dermer's candidacy as ambassador has been in question for some time, as he was considered a "red sheet" in Obama administration circles for his perceived support of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in last summer's race. Army Radio reported that Dermer has managed to improve his ties with the Obama administration, and with Secretary of State John Kerry in particular.
In a recent speech to American Jewish leaders, Dermer said President Barack Obama's support for Israel during Operation Pillar of Defense in Gaza "was superb."
Army Radio reported that the Obama administration has now removed its objection to Dermer's appointment. Obama's recent trip to Israel was apparently instrumental in this regard, the report stated.
U.S.-born Dermer will replace another American-born Israeli ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, in August.
According to a profile of him in Tablet magazine, Dermer is a jack-of-all-trades -- strategist, pollster, and speechwriter for Netanyahu, as well as his chief proxy in foreign affairs. A constant presence in Netanyahu's meetings in Washington, he has helped shape Israel's posture in the American capital most notably through Netanyahu's spring speech to the U.S. Congress, which foiled Obama's effort to pressure the prime minister into meaningful negotiations with the Palestinians. "Bibi doesn't move an inch without talking to him," said one person who has been in meetings with both men.
Dermer, 41, was born and raised in Florida, where his father and brother both served as Democratic mayors of Miami Beach. He was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, and started his career working with Republican strategist Frank Luntz on the Republicans' 1994 midterm election victory. From there he went to earn a master's degree at Oxford, intermittently traveling to Israel to work on the Knesset campaign of Natan Sharansky, the former Soviet refusenik who then headed the Russian-immigrant Yisrael B'Aliyah party.