Just days before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set off for an important meeting with US President Barack Obama, when it seemed there was no way to further aggravate the foul relationship between the White House and the prime minister’s office, the name of Ran Baratz popped up. Baratz, a conservative Israeli journalist, was appointed last week as the head of Israel’s public diplomacy campaign in the prime minister’s office, a position that effectively makes him Israel’s national spokesman. It took just seconds for a collection of his learned opinions on the issues of the day to begin making the rounds of the Israeli media. He likened Obama to the “modern face of anti-Semitism” and suggested that Secretary of State John Kerry take up a career as a standup comic. The only consolation for senior American officials was that this was nothing compared to his comments about Israeli President Reuven Rivlin (“I think he could be sent in a paraglider to the Syrian Golan [Heights] controlled by [the Islamic State]”).
As could only be expected, the appointment set off a scandal, which reached its climax in a blunt statement by US Vice President Joe Biden to the Union for Reform Judaism meeting in Florida on Nov. 8. He said, “There is no excuse, there should be no tolerance for any member or employee of the Israeli administration referring to the president of the United States in derogatory terms. Period. Period. Period.”
