Netanyahu taps Yossi Shelley as PMO director, Yossi Fuchs as cabinet secretary

Shelley served as ambassador to Brazil in 2017-2021, was mocked for altering photo of lobster during meal with Bolsonaro; US-born Fuchs called Netanyahu trial ‘made-up’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday appointed former diplomat Yossi Shelley as director general of the Prime Minister’s Office.

Shelley, 65, is a Netanyahu confidant and Likud activist. He served as ambassador to Brazil from 2017 to 2021, and was also the director-general of the Beersheba Municipality for a time.

Shelley was ridiculed in 2019 during his stint as an ambassador for attempting to conceal the fact that lobster — one of the foods forbidden by Jewish dietary laws — was served during a meeting with Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro, by photoshopping a photo of the meal.

Netanyahu’s office also announced that attorney Yossi Fuchs, 50, who ran on the Likud party’s slate in last month’s election but did not make it into the Knesset, will be Netanyahu’s cabinet secretary.

“I pledge to do all I can with humility and diligence so that the national government will run smoothly and advance the interests of the national camp,” Fuchs wrote in a tweet.

Fuchs was born in the United States and immigrated to Israel in 1974. He is also fiercely loyal to Netanyahu, and last month called the corruption cases against him “made-up.”

Tzachi Braverman will stay on in his role as the Likud leader’s chief of staff.

Netanyahu’s government of religious and right-wing parties was sworn in on Thursday.