Ambassador Ron Dermer Looks Back on His Years in Washington

The Tikvah Podcast

Tikvah

Judaism, Politics, Religion & Spirituality, News

4.6 • 620 Ratings

🗓️ 10 December 2020

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

From the Iran Deal to the rise of and fall of ISIS, from Israel’s year of inconclusive elections to a pandemic that has ravaged globe, the second decade of the 21st century has been history-making for both the United States and Israel. And for the better part of these last 10 years, Ron Dermer has served as the Jewish state’s ambassador in Washington, D.C. He is not the first native-born American who emigrated to Israel, rose to political prominence, and was then sent back here on behalf of his chosen nation. But his intimate understanding of America and the sensibilities of its citizens—both Jewish and non-Jewish—has helped him in his service and made him all the more effective.

Ambassador Dermer is now preparing to leave his post and return home to Jerusalem. Before he goes, he joins the Tikvah Podcast to discuss what he’s done, what he’s proud of, the basis of the U.S.-Israel relationship today, and why he remains hopeful about the alliance between America and Israel in the 21st century.

Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Historians will look back at the last decade as a period of tumultuous change in America,
0:14.1	from President Obama to President Trump, from America's preoccupation with terrorism in the Middle East
0:19.7	and the Iran deal to border security
0:22.0	and China. Americans have seen significant economic growth, but also newly invigorated
0:27.8	culture wars and a global pandemic that's devastated the nation. Throughout all of these tectonic
0:33.4	shifts, ever since 2013, Ron Dermar has represented the state of Israel in Washington, D.C.
0:40.0	Ambassador Dermar is not the first native-born American who emigrated to Israel,
0:45.0	rose to political prominence, and was then sent back here on behalf of his chosen nation.
0:49.4	But that intimate understanding of America, its sensibilities, and America's Jewish community, has helped
0:56.0	him serve as Israel's ambassador to the United States. Welcome to the Tikva podcast. I'm your host,
1:01.9	Jonathan Silver. After a seven-year term, Ambassador Dermer is preparing to leave his post and return
1:07.9	home to Jerusalem. Before he goes, we speak about what he's done, what he's
1:12.8	proud of, what he thinks the grounds of the U.S.-Israel relationship are today, and why, despite
1:17.8	it all, he's hopeful about the alliance between America and Israel in the 21st century.
1:23.0	If you enjoy this conversation, you can subscribe to the Tikva podcast on iTunes, Stitcher,
1:33.3	Google Play, and Spotify. I hope you leave us a five-star review to help us grow this community of ideas.
1:39.9	I welcome your feedback on this or any of our other podcast episodes at podcast at tikfafund.org. And of course, if you want to learn more about our work at Tikva, you could visit our website,
1:44.7	tikfafund.org, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
1:48.2	Here now is my conversation with Ambassador Ron Dermer.
1:52.2	Ambassador Dermar, welcome back to the Tikva podcast.
1:54.8	Great to be with you.
1:55.7	Ambassador Dermar, we're going to get to some of the larger policy achievements that you've
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Tikvah, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Tikvah and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.