The Israeli Ambassador to the US was a GOP operative who used to work for Frank Luntz

[muriel_volestrangler]

In one very notable example, Israel's current Ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, is a former GOP political operative who once worked for Frank Luntz, and only made aliyah (immigrated to Israel) in 1998. He even reportedly played some role (though I suspect a small one since he was just out of college at the time) in creating the 1994 Contract with America. It's usually good for both countries when a country's ambassador has a deep relationship with the country's head of government. It makes more seamless and reliable communication possible. And all seem to agree that Dermer's relationship with Netanyahu is very, very deep - this article refers to him as "Bibi's Brain."

So Dermer is tight with Netanyahu and he, by definition, has a ready grasp of the the minute intricacies of US politics, particularly Washington politics. But his background makes Democrats and especially this White House suspicious.

I don't know what role Dermer himself plays in the working the general ties with US Republicans, though I suspect it's substantial. But Netanyahu has made the de facto alliance between the Likud or what remains of the faction he owns (that part gets very complicated) and the US Republican party increasingly explicit. And that's dangerous. Dangerous for all concerned but particularly for Israel. I wish Netanyahu and his government had a better sense of the toxic repercussions of mobilizing GOP proxies as cut-outs in this way. It should go without saying that the Israel-US alliance becomes more brittle as it becomes more clearly identified with a single US political party. And perhaps more than that, as it becomes more clearly identified with the ties between Netanyahu and US Republicans.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/dangerous-game--2

Well, that must make for some comfortable diplomatic conversations - an ambassador who got his start as a ratfucker for your political opponents.

[alsame]

1. "Bibi's Brain"

Bibi’s Brain: Meet Ron Dermer, Israel’s new ambassador to the U.S.
Ron Dermer, a Florida-born Jew who started in politics working on the 1994 Republican Revolution, is Benjamin Netanyahu’s most influential aide.


The Prime Minister’s Office, Israel’s equivalent to the West Wing of the White House, is a nondescript complex located in Givat Ram, a neighborhood at Jerusalem’s western edge. Most of the building, which sits in the shadow of the hulking Bank of Israel and the grandly winged Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is given over to bureaucratic departments, but at its heart sits the Aquarium, a block sealed behind a series of passcard-protected glass doors that is the government’s nerve center. It’s where the prime minister—currently, Benjamin Netanyahu—does his business. Netanyahu’s national-security adviser, Yaakov Amidror, works in an adjacent room, and next to that is a modest suite belonging to an American Jew named Ron Dermer. 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.

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. 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 President Barack 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.

<snip>

Yet of all the Americans in the Aquarium, Dermer is uniquely fluent in Israel’s convoluted coalition government system, and he is adept at defending Netanyahu’s partisan flanks. His professional political background gives him another asset: exceptionally deep and longstanding relationships with Washington’s Republican establishment, particularly its neoconservative wing, which are entirely independent of his connection to Netanyahu. The youngest son of a Miami Beach politico, Dermer took a job right out of college in Washington as an assistant to Frank Luntz, the Republican consultant who engineered the watershed 1994 “Contract With America” House campaign for Newt Gingrich. His second was in Jerusalem, as a pollster for the Soviet-dissident-turned-Israeli-politician Natan Sharansky, a connection forged with help from Richard Perle, the Reagan (and, later, George W. Bush) Administration defense specialist.


http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/78543/bibis-brain


They are neocons.

[riverwalker]

2. I've noticed a subtle shift

when the media interviews these "Israeli spokespeople". They are beginning to see through the bullshit, the look on their faces when they are given all these denials and blatent lies. Maybe there is hope. They are losing whatever little credibility they had.
I spewed coffee this morning when even sweet little Micheala Piera (?sp) on CNN asked some spokesman about why they seem to target civilians, and he was going on ..blah.. blah.. human shields..blah. . and she said innocently "are you guys just bad shots? or what's the problem?"

[JI7]

6. yes, i have seen it on CNN also , have you seen Karl Penhaul ?

he is reporting from on the ground in Gaza and is doing a good job of telling the palestinian side and showing the personal /individual side of it.

he gave a good description of what it's like to be in there and made comparisons to things like Las Vegas and other american cities and how it's like if people were trapped there and could not get out.

i'm also seeing it on a lot of forums . usually you had the ignorant spewing about terrorists and the same stupid lines about how we can't let them win, they hate us for our freedom and other crap.

but people are starting to see something more to this. that it's not about al qaeda or 9/11 and other excuses people would use .

[Uncle Joe]

3. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, muriel_volestrangler.

[superpatriotman]

4. I thought "terror tunnels" sounded vaguely spitballed

and think-tanked.

It oozes Luntz' stink.

[frylock]

7. "terror tunnels" are the new "rape rooms"

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

5. Yeah, but freedom..... or something.... nt

[Enthusiast]

8. No one affiliated with Frank Luntz is fit to represent the government in any capacity.

Let's make this clear.

[sinkingfeeling]

9. And all of our neo-cons are joined at the hip to the Likud party.

[Enthusiast]

10. K&R! This post should have hundreds of recommendations!

Wake up people!

[blm]

11. And why the corpmedia's expert 'analysis' is crafted to undermine Kerry's efforts.

.