Biden considering former Treasury chief Jack Lew as next US envoy to Israel

Former US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is a leading candidate to become the next US ambassador to Israel, two sources familiar with the matter have told The Times of Israel.

“The process is ongoing, but [Lew] is being vetted,” says one of the sources, confirming reporting in the Axios news site.

This would ostensibly put Lew in an advanced stage of the process, likely ahead of some of the other names that have been floated, such as former congressmen Robert Wexler and Steve Israel.

While Lew was generally involved on Israel-related issues when serving as former US president Barack Obama’s chief of staff, his expertise is in finances and budgeting.

However, his close relationship with senior members of the Biden administration, thanks to leadership roles he’s held, is something he has in common with the previous ambassador, Tom Nides. While he too didn’t enter the job with lots of policy experience regarding Israel, Nides was also seen as a political heavyweight who spoke for the president and was accordingly respected by Israeli officials.

Lew does have a bit more of a history of engagement on these issues than Nides did.

He has long expressed his support for Israel, but has also been critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In a 2017 live interview at Columbia University, he acknowledged that Obama’s relationship with Netanyahu “was not as good as one might have hoped. And it was in both directions.”