Harow offered senior public diplomacy post

Netanyahu won’t replace departing LA-born bureau chief.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
Ari Harow 311 (photo credit: courtesy)
Ari Harow 311
(photo credit: courtesy)
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s former bureau chief Ari Harow has received an offer to serve as the deputy director-general of the Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Ministry and run its hasbara efforts, sources in the ministry said Thursday.
Harow officially left his post as Netanyahu’s bureau chief on Thursday due to health problems, which include myocarditis – inflammation of the heart muscle. Since he announced his intention to leave last month, Harow has received many offers in government and private business and from non-profit organizations.
Sources in the Prime Minister’s Office said Harow would not be replaced. Harow’s administrative responsibilities have been taken over by Netanyahu’s chief of staff Natan Eshel, while issues related to Diaspora Affairs would be handled by Netanyahu’s senior adviser Ron Dermer and another adviser, Rivka Kidron.
A native of Los Angeles, Harow was responsible for running Netanyahu’s office, was in charge of his schedule and decided who could see him.
He attended most of Netanyahu’s key meetings, including with the inner security cabinet, helped prepare Netanyahu for the meetings, and he was usually the first man to speak to the prime minister after them.
Officials in the Prime Minister’s Office credited Harow for easing tensions in Netanyahu’s bureau that at first endured negative headlines about power struggles and rivalries between advisers.
“He was able to turn things around after a difficult initial adjustment period,” an official close to Netanyahu said. “He created order and purpose in the office.”
Harow, 36, moved to Israel in 1985 when he was 12. He went on to servein the Golani Brigade, and then returned to the US, where he completeda psychology degree at the City University of New York.
After studying political science at Tel Aviv University, he lived inNew York again for three years, running the American Friends of Likudorganization from 2003 to 2006.
In 2002, Dermer brought Harow back to help with Netanyahu’s primarycampaign. Having informally advised Netanyahu on Diaspora affairs forfive years, Harow became his foreign affairs adviser in July 2007, andwas promoted to bureau chief in February 2008.