Ron Dermer officially named Israel’s U.S. ambassador

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu named Ron Dermer as Israel’s next ambassador to the United States.

The Prime Minister’s Office announced Tuesday in a statement that Netanyahu had decided to appoint his former senior adviser to the post.

“Ron Dermer has all the qualities necessary to successfully fill this important post,” Netanyahu said in the statement. “I have known him for many years and I know that Ron will faithfully represent the State of Israel in the capital of our greatest ally — the USA.”

Dermer, who immigrated to Israel from Florida 15 years ago, will take up his new post later in the year and succeed Michael Oren, a New Jersey native. Oren announced on July 5 that he would be vacating his post in the fall.

Dermer, 42, left the Prime Minister’s Office in March after four years as Netanyahu’s senior adviser. He had served as the economic attache at the Israeli Embassy in Washington from 2005 to 2008.

Dermer, a father of five, is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business and holds a master’s degree in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford.  He also co-wrote with Natan Sharansky the best-selling book “The Case For Democracy: The Power Of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny And Terror.”