According to former Defense Minister Moshe Arens, Ron Dermer’s appointment as Israel’s next ambassador to Washington is a perfect fit. So he sounded a bit surprised when I asked him whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s choice wasn’t a way of sticking out his tongue at President Barack Obama by sending him someone who had tried to help former Republican candidate Mitt Romney in the presidential elections.
Arens, the former defense minister who also served as Israel’s ambassador to Washington for one year (1982-1983), thinks that Dermer’s unmistakable closeness, almost intimacy with the Republicans is meaningless with regard to Dermer’s ability to serve as an excellent ambassador.