The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office announced the hiring of Omer Dostri, 37, as Benjamin Netanyahu’s new spokesman on Sunday. 

Dostri, 37, has a PhD in political science, and was a fellow at Israeli right-leaning think tanks as well as an analyst at the pro-Netanyahu Channel 14 before joining the Prime Minister’s Office. Dostri joined Netanyahu on the prime minister’s trip to Washington last month and met the press corps covering the prime minister.

While at the Israel and Defense and Security Forum, a movement of hawkish retired and reserve IDF officers, as a “specialist in defense strategy, military and national security,” Dostri wrote articles rapping the Biden administration for what he viewed as insufficient support for Israel in its war against Hamas.

When the U.S. did not veto a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza in March, Dostri wrote an article titled “The Biden administration threw Israel under the bus” and argued that “contrary to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s view … and that of the U.S. government in general … Israel is not a banana republic run by outside factors.” 

In another article, he wrote that “the Biden administration … began to prefer contacts with Hamas to a growing extent at the expense of Israel’s national security.” U.S. policy, he added, “plays into [Hamas’] hands,” allowing it to survive and strengthening the terror group’s resolve not to release the hostages it is holding in Gaza.

Hebrew-language media highlighted Dostri’s criticism of the protest movement against judicial reform, which he called a “delusional, loud and anarchist minority, which violates public order.” 

Dostri also supported Netanyahu’s decision to fire Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant last year for calling to slow down the government’s judicial reform plan in light of the protest leaders’ calls to refuse to report for reserve duties, accusing Gallant of “indirectly encouraging” draft-dodging. 

Netanyahu reversed Gallant’s dismissal last year, but there have been persistent reports in Hebrew media in recent days that he is considering firing the defense minister again.

Dostri’s criticisms of the Biden administration’s policies are sharp in tone but do not differ in substance from what officials close to Netanyahu have told Jewish Insider about their differences with the Biden administration since the war in Gaza began.

That comes in contrast with Ran Baratz, an academic and columnist whom Netanyahu appointed as spokesman in 2015. An uproar ensued after journalists found a Facebook post in which he called then-President Barack Obama’s response to Netanyahu’s criticism of a nuclear deal with Iran “modern antisemitism” and said that then-Secretary of State John Kerry had a “mental age” of 12. Baratz resigned soon after.

Dostri replaced Topaz Luk, once Netanyahu’s social media director, who climbed the ranks to become his primary spokesman after the 2022 election. Luk transitioned to a more behind-the-scenes position as a senior political advisor to Netanyahu via the Likud party earlier this year.