Ron Dermer is an American-born political consultant who was appointed Israeli ambassador to the United States in 2013. Sometimes called “Bibi’s brain” because of his close association with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Dermer also has deep ties to the Republican Party establishment and reportedly helped influence the neoconservative-inspired “freedom agenda” of President George W. Bush.

Dermer is widely perceived as a highly partisan actor and was involved in numerous actions that drove a rift between Israel and the Democratic party and eroded the bipartisan consensus on Middle East policy that had been a staple for years in Washington.

Former C.I.A. analyst Paull Pillar contended that naming Dermer, who was an active opponent of President Barack Obama, was a way of demonstrating Israel’s clout in U.S. domestic politics. Pillar opined, “The naming of Dermer is a statement that manipulation, with a hard-right twist, of American politics is not just something that arises from time to time in U.S.-Israeli relations but instead is the main aspect of the relationship. It also is a statement by Netanyahu that he isn’t bothered if the relationship is seen that way. Perhaps he wants it to be seen that way, which would be consistent with the principle that to sustain something like the fear-based power that Israel has in American politics requires that the power be repeatedly and blatantly exercised, and that people be continually reminded of it.”[1]

After Dermer had done an end-run around Obama and arranged with then-Speaker of the House John Boehner for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress in opposition to Obama’s efforts to reach a deal with Iran on their nuclear program, Dermer was at the center of one of the biggest controversies regarding the U.S.-Israel relationship in years. Dylan Scott of Politico observed, “In the view of American critics, Dermer is at best a political operative bringing the dark arts of that trade to the world stage, where the stakes are too high and the consequences too severe for petty hardball. At worst, in their view, Dermer represents something far more troubling: a direct reflection of Netanyahu’s own approach to politics and diplomacy. In the latter perspective, Dermer is channeling Bibi when seizing on American political divisions to advance the prime minister’s, and ultimately, his own, political agenda. These critics believe such maneuvering threatens America’s bipartisan support for Israel, as the Dermer legacy would be not merely a monumental misstep with the Netanyahu speech, but an undermining of the American pro-Israel consensus that could no longer be taken for granted.”[2]

Basking In Trump’s Glow

Since the election of Donald Trump, Dermer has on several occasions said that Israel is fully behind the new U.S. president, despite gaffes by Trump like failing to recognize that Israel is in the Middle East.[3]At the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in March 2017, Dermer stated, “For the first time in many years, perhaps even many decades, there is no daylight between our two governments.” Regarding the conflict in Syria, he argued that the U.S. and Israel “Both recognize that the worst outcome that could emerge from the horrific carnage in Syria would be to effectively cede parts of Syria to Iran and Hezbollah.” He also emphasized the shared views of Washington and Tel Aviv regarding “militant Islam,” which Dermer said has “engulfed the Middle East.”[4]

Dermer wasted little time in embracing Trump, going so far as to extend that warmth to Trump’s adviser, Stephen Bannon, a leader of the “alt-right” widely associated with anti-Semitic views. He told reporters just days after Trump’s victory in the 2016 election, “Israel has no doubt that President-elect Trump is a true friend of Israel. We have no doubt that Vice-President-elect Mike Pence is a true friend of Israel, he was one of Israel’s greatest friends in the Congress, one of the most pro-Israel governors in the country, and we look forward to working with the Trump administration, with all of the members of the Trump administration, including Steve Bannon, and making the US-Israel alliance stronger than ever.”[5]

Trump’s “fake news” mantra also found favor with the ambassador from Israel. Speaking at the annual gathering of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), Dermer said, “Now, some people associate fake news with the rise of President Donald Trump, but Israel has been dealing with fake news day after day, month after month, year after year, and decade after decade.” Dermer referred to what he called the “fake news explosion” during the 2014 conflict in Gaza, saying “Fake news did all it could to cast Israeli soldiers as criminals and Palestinian terrorists as victims.”[6]

In May 2018, after Israel killed over 120 Palestinians who were demonstrating against the ongoing siege of the Gaza Strip, Dermer accused a “media that is largely hostile toward Israel, simply ignorant or both to ignore Hamas’s genocidal goals and excuse its terrorism.” Dermer contended, inaccurately, that the protests were driven by Hamas with the goal of killing Israelis. The Israeli response was roundly criticized by most of the world, aside from the United States, and condemned in a resolution in the United Nations General Assembly after the United States vetoed a call for an impartial investigation into the killings—incidents where no Israeli was ever in mortal danger[7]—in the Security Council.[8]

Dermer, however, wrote, “How to keep this from happening again? Hamas could stop being Hamas. But that is unlikely to happen. Israel could stop defending itself. But that will never happen. As has been said: Better bad press than a good eulogy. But there is another way to put an end to this despicable practice: The media can stop demonizing Israel for defending itself. By not giving Hamas the PR victory it seeks, the media would actually be doing something to save innocent Palestinian lives rather than being complicit in their tragic deaths.”[9]

Support from U.S. Right Wing

Dermer’s appointment as ambassador, which was announced in July 2013, was applauded by right-wing “pro-Israel” groups. SaidMatt Brooks of the Republican Jewish Coalition: “The RJC extends warm congratulations to our friend Ron Dermer on this well-deserved honor. Ron is known for being a trusted and effective aide to Prime Minister Netanyahu. Responsibility for maintaining the Jewish state’s most vital international alliance is a heavy one, but knowing Ron as we do, we are confident that he is up to the job.”[10]

In late 2016, the controversial Center for Security Policy(CSP) announced that it had selected Dermer and Morton Klein of the Zionist Organization of Americato receive CSP’s annual “Freedom Flame” award. Observers criticized Dermer’s decision to accept the award, including the Southern Poverty Law Center, which stated: “The decision by the ambassador to accept CSP’s Freedom Flame award not only further legitimizes this organization, but could be read as an endorsement of anti-Muslim hate by the Israeli government. The CSP and its founder, Frank Gaffney, are known for alleging Muslim infiltration of the U.S. government, suggesting that “creeping Shariah” law is threatening American democracy and more. Donald Trump at one point cited a bogus CSP “poll” that alleged that 25% of American Muslims support violence,[11]a claim that serious polls show is ludicrous.”[12]

Background

Dermer grew up in Miami Beach, Florida, where his brother and late father each served as mayor. The Dermer family is close with the Bush family—particularly Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida[13]—and backed President Bush’s reelection bid in 2004. According to a lengthy 2011 profile in the American Jewish magazine Tablet, Dermer enjoys “exceptionally deep and longstanding relationships with Washington’s Republican establishment, particularly its neoconservative wing.”[14]

Dermer first went to Washington as a political consultant in the early 1990s after taking a college course with the veteran GOP pollster Frank Luntz. Dermer worked with Luntz and then-Rep. Newt Gingrichto craft what would become the Republican Party’s “Contract with America,” a campaign platform that guided the party during its successful 1994 bid to retake Congress.[15]

Luntz, reportedly capitalizing on an introduction made by Richard Perle, then connected Dermer to Natan Sharansky, a former Soviet dissident who immigrated to Israel and founded a right-wing party for immigrants from the former Soviet Union. In between breaks at Oxford, where he earned a master’s degree, Dermer worked as consultant and pollster for Sharansky’s Yisrael B’Aliya Party in the run-up to the 1996 elections. The following year, he formally immigrated to Israel and continued working for Sharansky. With Sharansky, Dermer coauthored the 2004 book The Case for Democracy, which President Bush credited as an influence on his “freedom agenda” to “democratize” the Middle East by force.[16]

Dermer became close to Netanyahu while still working for Sharanksy, consulting with the Likud leader during the 1999 election campaign, which Netanyahu—then serving his first tenure as prime minister—lost badly to the Labor Party’s Ehud Barak. Dermer and Netanyahu remained close, maintaining their ties as Netanyahu reentered the Cabinet following the Second Intifada. When Netanyahu resigned his post as finance minister to protest Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, he sent Dermer back to Washington as an economic envoy—a move, according to Politico, that was “seen then by Israeli political analysts as a bid to maintain Netanyahu’s influence in the U.S. political and Jewish establishments, even while he was in the opposition.”[17]Dermer renounced his U.S. citizenship upon taking the job, telling the New York Sun, “I left America because I wanted to help another nation I love defend the freedoms that Americans have long taken for granted.”[18]

Dermer returned to Israel in 2008. When Netanyahu was reelected prime minister in 2009, Dermer emerged as one of his most trusted and influential advisers. “Dermer’s title is senior adviser to the prime minister, and he’s a jack-of-all-trades—strategist, pollster, and speechwriter for Netanyahu, as well as his chief proxy in foreign affairs,” reported Tabletin 2011. “Dermer is the prime minister’s alter-ego, and he has done more to shape Israel’s 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.”[19]A Haaretz columnist added, “Netanyahu is probably the loneliest head of state one can imagine. There are very few people he truly trusts and appreciates, and Ron Dermer is one of them.”[20]

Controversies

Dermer’s close allegiance to Netanyahu was criticized by governmental oversight agencies in Israel in the lead up to the March 2015 Israeli parliamentary election. According to Haaretz, Dermer received a “disciplinary note” from the Israeli Civil Service Commission in January 2015 for breaking rules forbidding state employees from campaigning for political candidates. Dermer had earlier stated in an interview with a U.S. television network that he had “no doubt that when they [the Israeli public] look at all the people that stand for the leadership of the country, that they will have confidence in the leadership of Prime Minister Netanyahu.”[21]

Dermer’s aggressive advocacy for Netanyahu’s foreign policy, as well as his evident Republican sympathies, made him a controversial choice for an embassy post in Washington. As Lobelog‘sMarsha Cohen wrote after rumors surfaced of Dermer’s pending appointment in December 2012, “What better way to cross swords with the U.S. president than by appointing an Ambassador who has spent his entire career in the employment of the Republican party and actively rooted for, and worked for, the victory of Obama’s rival?”[22]

The Obama administration, along with some senior Democratic aides in Congress, regarded Dermer warily, suspecting him of having distributed talking points to Republican members of Congress criticizing the president’s diplomacy with Iran and the administration’s support for Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. In late 2013, an anonymous former White House official said Dermer was “seen as extremely political and as someone who has repeatedly gone to the press with negative stories.” Another observer added that White House staff saw Dermer “as the guy who incited Congress and Jewish organizations against Obama.”[23]

Dermer reportedly facilitated Netanyahu’s unofficial support for 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Dermer, wrote Haaretz columnist Barak Ravid, was “the person who tried to convince Netanyahu by any means possible that Romney was set to win the elections. We saw what happened in the end.”[24]It was Dermer who coordinated Romney’s campaign-season visit to Israel, part of a mostly unsuccessful gambit to lure Democratic-leaning Jewish voters away from Obama by attacking his record on Israel. According to the Wall Street Journal, Dermer was also “considered a liaison to influential Republican campaign financiers like Sheldon Adelson,” the controversial Israeli-American casino magnate who spent millions trying to elect Romney and a host of other Republicans.[25]

In January 2015, Dermer helped orchestrate a controversial invitation to Netanyahu to address Congress. House Speaker John Boehner announced the invitation shortly after President Obama’s State of the Union, saying that he invited Netanyahu—without the White House’s knowledge—to warn Congress about the “grave” threat Iran poses to the United States’ “security and way of life.”[26]

The surprise announcement came in the midst of efforts by the Republican-led Congress to pass additional sanctions against Iran even as negotiations with the country were on going.[27]Dermer’s role in organizing Netanyahu’s speech was later revealed by Haaretz, which quoted a senior Israeli official as saying, “Dermer approached Boehner, McConnell and other senior Republican Party figures at Netanyahu’s behest and suggested the idea of the speech.”[28]

The invitation was widely criticized. The White House called it a “breach of protocol” and an anonymous administration official reportedly said that Netanyahu had “spat in our face publicly.”[29]The administration later announced that administration officials would not meet with Netanyahu during his trip.[30]Many outlets also condemned the Boehner-Netanyahu move, including a senior correspondent with Fox News, who called it “wicked.”[31]

Some observers argued that Dermer’s role in the affair was particularly egregious because he had met with Secretary Kerry the day before Boehner’s announcement yet failed to mention the invitation. “In almost any other case, such bad faith and duplicity would lead a host country to ask that an ambassador be withdrawn,” opined one analyst.[32]Dermer later argued that Netanyahu had a “sacred duty” to accept the invitation given the alleged threat posed to Israel by Iran’s nuclear program.[33]

In an interview with the Atlantic’sJeffrey Goldberg, Dermer defended his decision to not inform the White House about Netanyahu’s speech. “It was … made clear to me that it was the speaker’s responsibility and normal protocol for the Speaker’s office to notify the administration of the invitation. That is why I felt it would be inappropriate for me to raise the issue with the administration, including in my meeting with the secretary of state, until the speaker notified them.” Regarding the Obama administration’s potential nuclear deal with Iran, Dermer said: “The agreement that is being discussed today is not an agreement that would dismantle Iran’s nuclear-weapons capability.”[34]

Greg Thielmann of the Arms Control Association responded: “This capability, which flows from the knowledge of Iranian scientists and the industrial and technical infrastructure of the country, was explicitly acknowledged in the 2007 U.S. National Intelligence Estimate on Iran’s Nuclear Program. It cannot be negotiated away (or destroyed from the air). Instead, the P5+1 negotiations with Iran seek to achieve a comprehensive agreement that ensures Iran’s nuclear program is sufficiently transparent that the international community is confident that it is entirely peaceful and shuts off the pathways to quickly break out of the NPT in pursuit of a nuclear weapon.”[35]

After Netanyahu’s speech to Congress and subsequent reelection as Israeli Prime Minister in March 2015, prominent voices in the United States and Israel called for Dermer to be replaced. The New York Times reported at the time: “[S]ome administration officials and members of Congress have privately said Mr. Dermer’s standing has been so tarnished by recent events that he can no longer be effective in his post.”[36]

In Israel, a member of the Knesset from the opposition Zionist Union party, Erel Margalit, wrote a letter to Netanyahu stating that Dermer “risks the state of Israel” and called for him to be replaced.[37]

After the Iran nuclear deal was reached in July 2015, Dermer denounced it as a “disaster of historic proportions.” He added: “[T]he deal announced today in Vienna is breathtaking in its concessions to an Iranian regime.”[38]

However, when pressed on his outspoken stance against the White House over the diplomatic agreement, he said during an interview in August 2015: “When the president and the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, when they say they believe this deal is better for America and better for Israel, I have no doubt they are being sincere. We just disagree with their judgement. We think that this deal will endanger Israel’s security.”[39]

Regarding his and Netanyahu’s political views, Dermer told Tablet in December 2012: “In terms of security policy, diplomatic policy, economic policy, I share his views—there are very few things we don’t see eye to eye on.”[40]But Ravid has characterized Dermer’s views as “far more extreme than Netanyahu’s.” European and American officials, Ravid wrote in December 2012, “have told me a number of times over the past four years that they were shocked by his positions on the settlement issue, on peace talks with the Palestinians, and on the principle of an independent Palestinian state. I recall one incident when, on the way back from Netanyahu’s first visit to Washington, Dermer told reporters on the prime minister’s plane that “the principle of two states for two peoples is a childish solution to a complicated problem.”[41]

Dermer’s brazenly hawkish approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was on display during the 2014 Gaza War, when he told attendees of a Christians United for Israelsummit that critics of Israel’s military actions were “moral idiots” and that the “Israel Defense Forces should be given a Nobel Peace Prize.” The conflict cost the lives of over 1500 Palestinian civilians, including hundreds of children, as well as of six Israeli civilians.[42]

As a columnist for the right-wing Jerusalem Postin the mid-2000s, Dermer frequently penned op-eds criticizing Palestinian leaders and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. “Throughout the columns,” Tabletreported, “Palestinian leaders—not just Arafat, but Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti—are branded not just as terrorists but as tyrants bent on fomenting the Intifada to consolidate power in a ‘corrupt junta.'” In other writings, Dermer characterized Jewish critics of Israeli policies as “self-haters” and advocated prolonging any possible peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.[43]

As an adviser to Netanyahu, Dermer backed a controversial 2009 law that would have forced NGOs in Israel who criticized Netanyahu’s handling of the Palestinian issue to identify their funding sources, accusing such groups of “attacking the very foundations of the state.”[44]More recently, in 2013, Dermer spoke out against the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) movement, a campaign by Palestinian solidarity activists to pressure Israel over its treatment of Palestinians by enforcing a political, economic, and cultural boycott of Israeli institutions. When the American Studies Association (ASA) announced that it would boycott Israeli universities to comply with the campaign, Dermer accused the group of anti-Semitism. “The singling out of the Jewish state for boycott is no different than the many attempts throughout history to single out Jews and hold them to a different standard,” he wrote on his Facebook page. “There is a name for that phenomenon. Perhaps one of the distinguished professors of the ASA could teach his boycotting colleagues what it is.”[45]

SOURCES

[1]Paul Pillar, “The New Israeli Ambassador,” The National Interest, July 11, 2013, http://nationalinterest.org/blog/paul-pillar/the-new-israeli-ambassador-8719

[2]Dylan Scott, “Meet The Man At The Center Of The Unprecedented US-Israel Rift,” Politico, February 13, 2015, https://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/ron-dermer-netanyahu-speech-boehner-obama

[3]Yair Rosenberg, Twitter, May 22, 2017, https://twitter.com/yair_rosenberg/status/866770905036443649?lang=en

[4]Michael Wilner, “’No Daylight’ With Trump Administration, Israeli Ambassador Dermer Says,” Jerusalem Post, March 26, 2017, https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Ron-Dermer-485236

[5]Matthew Nussbaum, “Israeli ambassador to U.S. vouches for Trump, Bannon,” Politico, November 17, 2016, https://www.politico.com/blogs/donald-trump-administration/2016/11/ron-dermer-israeli-ambassador-praises-trump-bannon-231578

[6]Jacob Kornbluh, “Ron Dermer blasts ‘fake news’ on Israel,” Jewish Insider, July 18, 2017, http://jewishjournal.com/news/israel/221779/dermer-blasts-fake-news-israel/

[7]Human Rights Watch, “Israel: Gaza Killings Unlawful, Calculated,” April 3, 2018, https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/04/03/israel-gaza-killings-unlawful-calculated

[8]Rick Gladstone, “U.N. General Assembly Vote Castigates Israel Over Gaza Deaths,” New York Times, June 13, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/13/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-united-nations.html

[9]Ron Dermer, “Stop demonizing Israel for defending itself,” Washington Post, May 18, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/stop-demonizing-israel-for-defending-itself/2018/05/18/694ef654-5ab8-11e8-858f-12becb4d6067_story.html?utm_term=.bbe88678c5a8

[10]Republican Jewish Coalition, “RJC Statement on Ron Dermer Being Named as Ambassador-Designate from Israel to the U.S.,” July 9, 2013, http://www.rjchq.org/2013/07/rjc-statement-on-ron-dermer-being-named-as-ambassador-designate-from-israel-to-the-u-s/#sthash.qt7gSTGN.dpuf.

[11]Nathan Lean and Jordan Denari, “Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Trust the Latest Poll on American Muslims,” Huffington Post, July 7, 2015, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/nathan-lean/heres-why-you-shouldnt-trust-the-latest-poll-on-american-muslims_b_7688204.html

[12]Stephen Piggott, “Why is the Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Accepting an Award from an Anti-Muslim Hate Group?” Southern Poverty Law Center, November 1, 2016,https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2016/11/01/why-israeli-ambassador-us-accepting-award-anti-muslim-hate-group

[13]Barak Ravid, “Netanyahu’s nominee for next envoy to U.S.: The brains behind his support for Romney,” Haaretz, December 29, 2012, http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/diplomania/netanyahu-s-nominee-for-next-envoy-to-u-s-the-brains-behind-his-support-for-romney.premium-1.490641.

[14]Allison Hoffman, “Bibi’s Brain: Meet Ron Dermer, Israel’s new ambassador to the U.S.,” Tablet, September 20, 2011, http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/78543/bibis-brain?all=1.

[15]Allison Hoffman, “Bibi’s Brain: Meet Ron Dermer, Israel’s new ambassador to the U.S.,” Tablet, September 20, 2011, http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/78543/bibis-brain?all=1.

[16]Allison Hoffman, “Bibi’s Brain: Meet Ron Dermer, Israel’s new ambassador to the U.S.,” Tablet, September 20, 2011, http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/78543/bibis-brain?all=1.

[17]Ron Kampeas, “‘Bibi’s Brain’ Comes to Washington,” Politico, December 2, 2013, http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2013/12/bibis-brain-comes-to-washington-ron-dermer-netanyahu-100561_Page3.html#.UwdhUv0bSao.

[18]Quoted by Michael Finch II, Amy Sherman, and Elinor J. Brecher, “Possible future Israeli ambassador holds two countries in his heart,” Miami Herald, January 1, 2013, http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/01/3163806/possible-future-israeli-ambassador.html#storylink=cpy.

[19]Allison Hoffman, “Bibi’s Brain: Meet Ron Dermer, Israel’s new ambassador to the U.S.,” Tablet, September 20, 2011, http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/78543/bibis-brain?all=1.

[20]Ron Kampeas, “‘Bibi’s Brain’ Comes to Washington,” Politico, December 2, 2013, http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2013/12/bibis-brain-comes-to-washington-ron-dermer-netanyahu-100561_Page3.html#.UwdhUv0bSao.

[21]Barak Ravid, “Israeli ambassador in U.S. reprimanded for forbidden political campaigning on behalf of Netanyahu,” Haaretz, January 26, 2015, http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.639004.

[22]Marsha Cohen, “Top Netanyahu Adviser set to become Israel’s next US Ambassador,” Lobelog, December 29, 2012, http://www.lobelog.com/top-netanyahu-adviser-set-to-become-israels-next-us-ambassador/.

[23]Ron Kampeas, “‘Bibi’s Brain’ Comes to Washington,” Politico, December 2, 2013, http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2013/12/bibis-brain-comes-to-washington-ron-dermer-netanyahu-100561_Page3.html#.UwdhUv0bSao.

[24]Barak Ravid, “Netanyahu’s nominee for next envoy to U.S.: The brains behind his support for Romney,” Haaretz, December 29, 2012, http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/diplomania/netanyahu-s-nominee-for-next-envoy-to-u-s-the-brains-behind-his-support-for-romney.premium-1.490641.

[25]Joshua Mitnick, “Israel Names Ron Dermer as Ambassador to U.S.,” Wall Street Journal, July 10, 2013, http://blogs.wsj.com/middleeast/2013/07/10/israel-names-ron-dermer-as-ambassador-to-u-s/.

[26]M.J. Rosenberg, “Bibi Netanyahu Has Set a New Record for Chutzpah,” The Nation, January 23, 2015, http://www.thenation.com/article/195841/bibi-netanyahu-has-set-new-record-chutzpah.

[27]M.J. Rosenberg, “Bibi Netanyahu Has Set a New Record for Chutzpah,” The Nation, January 23, 2015, http://www.thenation.com/article/195841/bibi-netanyahu-has-set-new-record-chutzpah.

[28]Barak Ravid, “Behind Obama’s back: How Netanyahu’s U.S. trip was cooked up,” Haaretz, January 22, 2015, http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.638396.

[29]M.J. Rosenberg, “Bibi Netanyahu Has Set a New Record for Chutzpah,” The Nation, January 23, 2015, http://www.thenation.com/article/195841/bibi-netanyahu-has-set-new-record-chutzpah.

[30]M.J. Rosenberg, “Bibi Netanyahu Has Set a New Record for Chutzpah,” The Nation, January 23, 2015, http://www.thenation.com/article/195841/bibi-netanyahu-has-set-new-record-chutzpah.

[31]Steve Benen, “Unexpected critics pan GOP/Netanyahu gambit,” MSNBC, January 26, 2015, http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/unexpected-critics-pan-gopnetanyahu-gambit.

[32]M.J. Rosenberg, “Bibi Netanyahu Has Set a New Record for Chutzpah,” The Nation, January 23, 2015, http://www.thenation.com/article/195841/bibi-netanyahu-has-set-new-record-chutzpah.

[33]Dylan Scott, “Israeli Ambassador Defends Netanyahu Speech To Congress As ‘Sacred Duty’,” Talking Points Memo, January 26, 2015, http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ron-dermer-netanyahu.

[34]Jeffrey Goldberg, “Israeli Ambassador: Netanyahu Never Meant to Disrespect Obama,” The Atlantic, January 30 2015, http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/01/dermer-on-netanyahu-boehner-and-iran/385003/.

[35]Marsha Cohen, “Fact-checking Bibi and Company’s Talking Points on Iran,” LobeLog, February 2, 2015, http://www.lobelog.com/fact-checking-bibi-and-companys-talking-points-on-iran/.

[36]Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Ashley Parker, “Ambassador Tries to Bridge Gap With U.S., but on Israel’s Terms,” The New York Times, March 25, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/26/us/israel-ron-dermer-ambassador-iran-nuclear-deal.html?_r=0.

[37]Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Ashley Parker, “Ambassador Tries to Bridge Gap With U.S., but on Israel’s Terms,” The New York Times, March 25, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/26/us/israel-ron-dermer-ambassador-iran-nuclear-deal.html?_r=0.

[38]Ron Dermer, “Israeli ambassador: The four major problems with the Iran deal,” The Washington Post, July 14, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-bad-deal-today-a-worse-deal-tomorrow/2015/07/14/5d34ba00-2a39-11e5-a250-42bd812efc09_story.html.

[39]Times of Israel, “Dermer: Israel ‘not eager’ to battle Obama on Iran deal, but has no choice,” August 15, 2015, http://www.timesofisrael.com/dermer-israel-not-eager-to-go-up-against-us-on-iran-deal-but-has-no-choice/.

[40]Allison Hoffman, “Bibi’s Brain: Meet Ron Dermer, Israel’s new ambassador to the U.S.,” Tablet, September 20, 2011, http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/78543/bibis-brain?all=1.

[41]Barak Ravid, “Netanyahu’s nominee for next envoy to U.S.: The brains behind his support for Romney,” Haaretz, December 29, 2012, http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/diplomania/netanyahu-s-nominee-for-next-envoy-to-u-s-the-brains-behind-his-support-for-romney.premium-1.490641.

[42]Amnesty International, “Families Under the Rubble,” November 2014, http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE15/032/2014/en/613926df-68c4-47bb-b587-00975f014e4b/mde150322014en.pdf.

[43]Allison Hoffman, “Bibi’s Brain: Meet Ron Dermer, Israel’s new ambassador to the U.S.,” Tablet, September 20, 2011, http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/78543/bibis-brain?all=1.

[44]Ron Kampeas, “‘Bibi’s Brain’ Comes to Washington,” Politico, December 2, 2013, http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2013/12/bibis-brain-comes-to-washington-ron-dermer-netanyahu-100561_Page3.html#.UwdhUv0bSao.

[45]Herb Keinon, “Ambassador Dermer: Academic boycott of Israel ‘a travesty,'” Jerusalem Post, December 17, 2012, http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/US-Ambassador-Dermer-Academic-boycott-of-Israel-a-travesty-335279.