Sheffer leaves PMO as chief of staff, Harow takes over

Netanyahu praised Sheffer for his "sensitivity to others and concern for details," said he could always be counted on.

By HERB KEINON
Gil Shefer with Netanyahu (photo credit: GPO)
Gil Shefer with Netanyahu
(photo credit: GPO)
Gil Sheffer, the prime minister’s chief of staff and a trusted confidant of the Netanyahu family who announced his resignation last July, formally stepped own on Sunday. He is replaced by Ari Harrow.
Sheffer joined the PMO in 2009 when Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was elected as his bureau chief and the staffer responsible for his meetings and trips inside the country. He was promoted to chief of staff in February 2012 after Natan Eshel was forced to resign.
The PMO is not only a place of work for me, but a home;  a warm, vibrant home full of activity, a home where at any given moment countless things happen," Sheffer said at a farewell reception in his honor at the PMO, "
Sheffer thanked Netanyahu for the opportunity he was given, and said that he saw "up close the responsibilities on your shoulders, the moments when you have to make the difficult decisions alone."
Netanyahu praised Sheffer for his "sensitivity to others and concern for details," and said he was someone whom could always be counted on.  "I am forever grateful to you," Netanyahu  said.
Harow became Netanyahu's foreign affairs adviser in July 2007, when Netanayhu was the head of the Opposition, and was promoted to his bureau chief in February 2008. He remained in that position after Netanyahu became prime minister in 2009, and served in that post until leaving for health reasons in early 2010.