Netanyahu says he will meet next week with newly tapped media chief Ran Baratz, who called US president anti-Semitic
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday distanced himself from “inappropriate” remarks made by his newly appointed media adviser Ran Baratz about President Reuven Rivlin and US President Barack Obama.
Shortly after Baratz was tapped as media adviser and head of public diplomacy and media in the PMO, a slew of his controversial comments came to light, including Facebook posts in which he mocked Rivlin as a “marginal figure,” and accused Obama of anti-Semitism.
“The comments are inappropriate and do not reflect my positions or the policy of this government,” Netanyahu said of Baratz’s disparaging Facebook posts.
Netanyahu noted that Baratz had since apologized for his remarks and said he would discuss the issue when he returned from his visit to the US next week.
In March, hours after Netanyahu addressed the US Congress regarding the dangers of signing a nuclear deal with Iran, Baratz took to Facebook to criticize Obama’s policies.
“Allow me to diverge from my usual moderate ways and be a bit blunt,” he wrote on March 3. “Obama’s response to Netanyahu’s speech – this is what modern anti-Semitism looks like in Western liberal countries. And it is of course accompanied by a lot of tolerance and understanding for Islamic anti-Semitism; so much tolerance and understanding that they’ll even give them [an atomic bomb].”
Netanyahu is set to meet Obama in Washington on Monday for the first time in a year.
Baratz was previously founder of Hebrew conservative news website Mida, and on staff at the Ein Prat Academy outside Jerusalem. A resident of the West Bank settlement of Kfar Adumim, Baratz formerly taught Greek philosophy at Hebrew University.
In his own words
In a Facebook post from last week, Baratz mocked Rivlin for flying back to Israel from the Czech Republic in economy class.
“I think it says a lot that the president flies in economy class, goes around the plane and shakes hands with everyone,” Baratz wrote. “In particular it says that he’s such a marginal figure that there’s no concern for his life.”
He went on to suggest sending Rivlin over the Syrian border on a paraglider, a journey made by an Israeli Arab recently in a quest to join the Islamic State group.
Baratz also took aim at US Secretary of State John Kerry on October 18, 2014, after Kerry linked the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the rise of the Islamic State terror group.
“I went to see Kerry’s speech, where he linked Israel and the Islamic State, and it was pretty hilarious, so I summed it up for you: After his term as secretary of state, Kerry can look forward to a flourishing career in one of the comedy clubs in Kansas City [where a gunman shot and killed three people at Jewish sites in April 2014], Mosul or the Holot detention facility,” where Israel confines many of the African migrants who have entered the country on recent years, Baratz wrote. It was not clear what connection he drew between these three locations.
Late Wednesday night, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement it was unaware of Baratz’s comments and that Netanyahu viewed them as unbecoming. Baratz said in a late-night interview with Channel 2 that he was sorry if Rivlin was offended.
On Thursday, Baratz again apologized for his comments and said he regretted not informing Rivlin of their existence prior to the announcement of his appointment.
“I apologize for the hurtful things that I published online in relation to the president, the US president and other public officials,” he wrote on Facebook.
“The words that I published were written frivolously and sometimes jokingly, in a manner fit for social networks and a private person,” he added.
Widespread criticism
Baratz’s appointment still has to be approved by the cabinet, but by Thursday an increasing number of lawmakers were calling on Netanyahu to reconsider the nomination, and said they would vote against it.
Social Equality Minister and Likud MK Gila Gamliel said the remarks could “undermine the symbols of our government and those of our greatest ally, and may be misunderstood as an official position.”
Welfare Minister Haim Katz, also of Likud, said that he would vote against the appointment, as Baratz’s remarks “indicate that he isn’t suitable for the position.”
Opposition leader Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union) said Baratz’s remarks should disqualify him from the position.
“A person who lashed out at President Obama, slandered Secretary of State Kerry and worst of all, humiliated the dear president of our country, has to be sent home immediately,” Herzog said.
Senior Zionist Union Knesset member Tzipi Livni said Baratz’s statements were accurate reflections of Netanyahu’s own opinions.
Former IDF spokesman and Zonist Union MK Nachman Shai, also insinuated that Baratz was unfit for the post.
“A person comes to a role not only with their academic and professional experience; they also come with their views, and this is his view of President Rivlin, of the American secretary of state and of other issues,” Shai said in a statement.
As reported by The Times of Israel