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Dermer to Attend GOP and Dem Conventions

Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer will be attending the Republican and the Democratic national conventions this month, according to a source at the Israeli Embassy in DC.

The Israeli ambassador will attend a Republican Jewish Coalition leadership event on Tuesday alongside Newt Gingrich and former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton for a foreign policy discussion, Jewish Insider has learned.

According to a schedule of Jewish events during the Democratic convention, Dermer will discuss the U.S.-Israel relationship at an event hosted by former Congressman Robert Wexler, president of the Washington-based S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace, on Thursday, the same day Hillary Clinton is expected to deliver her acceptance speech as the Democratic Party’s first female presidential nominee.

Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest on Thursday likened the appointment of the new UK foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, to the appointment of Dermer, when asked if the U.S. administration would be able to work with an individual who has been vocally critical of President Obama.

“I got questions of this variety when Prime Minister Netanyahu had announced that Ambassador Dermer would be the Israeli envoy to the United States,” Earnest said during a White House press briefing on Thursday. “And what I said in that situation is the same thing that I’ll say here, which is to restate a principle about the importance of the U.S.-UK special relationship. That relationship transcends any single personality, and choices that are made by the British government about who will represent them on the international stage are rightly choices that should be made by British leaders, and British leaders alone.”

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