LiveWire

Ron Baratz, who holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Hebrew University, enjoys writing Facebook rants.

However, his recent appointment as Netanyahu’s Media Chief was jeopardized after some his previous writing came to light.

A spokesman for the State Department said that “name-calling is simply not a polite thing to do.”

(Oh, really? Like the time, last year, when a senior member of the Obama administration called Netanyahu “chickens***” ?)

And Josh Earnest called Baratz’s comments ‘troubling and offensive.’

I call them ‘accurate and insightful.”

Via i24 News:

Ron Baratz, who was to be the new media advisor, called US President Obama’s conduct anti-Semitic….

Baratz, who was supposed to accompany Netanyahu to Washington on Sunday, will no longer travel with the prime minister after he described President Barack Obama’s behavior earlier this year as anti-Semitic and once referred to Secretary of State John Kerry as someone “whose mental age doesn’t exceed 12.”

….Posting on his Facebook page, Baratz wrote “the things that I published were written thoughtlessly, and sometimes in jest, in the kind of language a private citizens uses when posting on social media. Clearly those in governmental positions speak and behave differently,” he said.

“I apologize for the harmful things I published with regard to the president [of Israel], the president of the United States and other public figures,” he added….

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said that Baratz’ statements were “troubling and offensive” and that “it is readily apparent that an apology was warranted.”

….”Allow me to be somewhat outspoken, contrary to my general moderate ways,” Baratz wrote in a Facebook post on March 3, the day of Netanyahu’s controversial speech to Congress about the deal being discussed between Iran and world powers. “Obama’s comment on Netanyahu’s speech – this is what modern anti-Semitism looks like in Western liberal states. And it is accompanied, of course, with much tolerance and understanding of Islamist anti-Semitism; so much tolerance and understanding that they are even willing to give them (Iran) a nuclear bomb.”

….Baratz wrote an article last year in which he heavily criticized Kerry’s suggestion that the emergence of Islamic radicalism in the Middle East could be traced to the lingering Israel-Palestine conflict.

Responding to Kerry’s suggestion, Baratz wrote: “To Kerry’s credit, it should be noted that there is no Miss America around who could say what he said any better. This is the time to wish the secretary of state good luck, and to count down the days with the hope that someone over there at the State Department will wake up and begin to see the world through the eyes of a person whose mental age exceeds 12.”

Update:

Via Times of Israel: PM denies he’ll review choice of media chief who called Obama anti-Semitic

Despite clear American anger, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that he did not tell US Secretary of State John Kerry that he is going to reconsider his appointment of a controversial new media chief who has called President Barack Obama anti-Semitic and has mocked Kerry.

The prime minister wrote in Hebrew on his official Twitter feed that he didn’t say he would reconsider Ran Baratz’s appointment, “rather that I would deal with the matter upon my return to Israel. Netanyahu is set to fly to the US next week.

Earlier unnamed Netanyahu aides, quoted by two Israeli radio stations on Friday morning, also contradicted remarks by the State Department Spokesman John Kirby, who said Thursday that the prime minister told the secretary that he would review the appointment of Baratz, which has yet to be fully ratified. Netanyahu merely told Kerry, in a phone call earlier Thursday, that he would deal with the issue later next week, after he returns from talks with Obama in Washington, Army Radio and Israel Radio reported.

The storm over the appointment of Baratz has soured preparations for Netanyahu’s meeting with Obama at the White House on Monday….