Israel PM’s spokesman in Facebook row

But a slew of his controversial comments then quickly came to light.

The White House is downplaying the significance of President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s strained relationship ahead of a highly-anticipated meeting next week.

“First they have to negotiate with the White House”, one senior congressional aide said of Israel. “Dr. Baratz has apologized and has asked to meet me to clarify the matter following my return to Israel”.

Rivlin’s office publicly demanded to know whether Netanyahu was aware of Baratz’s comments when he appointed him.

Netanyahu is due to meet Obama in Washington Monday after months of tense relations between the two traditional allies.

Rivlin has angered a few ultranationalist Israelis with his condemnation of anti-Arab racism and his vocal advocacy of equal rights for Israel’s Arab citizens.

Baratz apologized in a statement he posted on Facebook and shared by the Prime Minister’s office.

She said she believed Washington had a duty to bring Israelis and Palestinians to the negotiating table, and “as president I will never stop working to advance the goal of two states for two peoples living in peace, security and dignity”. “These postings were written hastily and sometimes humorously, in a manner appropriate for a private person writing on the Internet”, Baratz said.

The prime minister’s office announced the selection of Baratz on Wednesday evening.

Baratz recently said on his Facebook page that Obama’s response to the Netanyahu speech to Congress this year was an example of “modern anti-Semitism in liberal Western states”.

“Allow me to be a bit blunt, which is a break from my usual moderation”, Baratz wrote.

The meeting will also be an occasion to discuss issues like security, Iran and Syria.

“It comes of course with lots of tolerance and understanding of Islamic anti-Semitism; so much tolerance and understanding that they are willing to give them the atom”.

In October final yr, Baratz took objective at Kerry in an article on Mida, which payments itself as a “information and mental web site” devoted to offering info and views not prevalent in different Israeli media.

Ron Baratz has accused Obama of anti-Semitism, suggested his own country’s president was not important enough to assassinate and described Kerry as having the mental abilities of a 12-year-old.

Sniping at Israel’s head of state, Baratz commented on Facebook final week about pictures displaying President Reuven Rivlin – whose publish is essentially ceremonial – sitting in financial system class on a flight again from an official go to to the Czech Republic. “It would be premature to talk about numbers or dollar figures”, Shapiro said.

“For the next four years, a pro-Arab, anti-Israel president will continue to rule”, Baratz wrote, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Baratz’s appointment still has to be approved by the cabinet.

Predictably, the United States blew a gasket, expressing concern at Netanyahu’s appointment.