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.

Arens grew up in the United States and served in the US army. He is viewed as one of the best defense ministers Israel has ever known and as someone who succeeded in maintaining a close, effectual relationship with the American administration in all the roles he assumed.

In his youth, Arens was a member of the Revisionist Zionist youth movement and enlisted in the Etzel, the underground organization in pre-state Palestine. For years, he was considered one of the Likud's senior officials and viewed as someone qualified to serve as a prime minister representing the Likud. His views throughout the years have varied within the hard-line ideological axis. He opposed the peace agreement with Egypt in 1979 and the disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2005, and today he does not think that there is anyone on the Palestinian side with whom negotiations can be held.