Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Monday that he will grant the first reserved slot on his Likud party's list to Israeli entrepreneur Oren Dobronsky.
Dobronsky, whom the Likud described as "a successful businessman, one of the founders of Israel's high-tech sector, and a right-winger," will be installed as number 11 on the party's list in the upcoming elections.
However, controversy did not take long to catch up with the new candidate. Minutes after Netanyahu's announcement, past social media posts by Dobronsky with harsh criticism against US President Donald Trump and his actions during the war with Iran began to surface.
In one post, published in June, Dobronsky cited a CNN report according to which Iran will be able to block the Strait of Hormuz whenever it wants, and wrote: "Great job, Trump and your imbecile team. You have managed to worsen the status quo as of before the war." He went on to refer to war as "a colossal failure. Bigger than Biden’s Afghanistan debacle by an order of magnitude."
In another post from the same day, Dobronsky criticized Trump for not including Israel in the negotiations with Iran, and went as far as to call the US President a "morally corrupt piece of ****."
After the remarks surfaced, Dobronsky rushed to issue a public apology to Trump. He opened his statement by praising the President and stressed that over the years he had published many words of support for him.
"President Trump is the greatest friend Israel ever had in the White House. I have published things in his favor many times," Dobronsky wrote.
He went on to directly address the remarks that set off the controversy, explaining that "in one case, without knowing all the facts, I lost my temper and published something that I regret." He concluded his statement with a direct apology: "I apologize to President Trump, whom I very much admire."