U.S. President Joe Biden has nominated former Treasury secretary Jacob Lew to serve as the next U.S. ambassador to Israel, the White House announced Tuesday.
Lew, who served as White House chief of staff and director of the Office of Management and Budget during the Obama administration, would succeed Ambassador Tom Nides, who left the post in July. Lew also served as OMB director during the Clinton administration, and as deputy secretary of State for management and resources during the Obama administration.
Lew, who goes by Jack, has some experience working with the Israelis from his previous government roles. During the Clinton administration, he helped develop a memorandum of understanding on providing Israel with multi-year funding and was involved during the Clinton and Obama administrations with efforts to fund Israeli missile defense systems.
Israel and Republican officials worked out plans for Netanyahu's speech to Congress without notifying the White House. Netanyahu's aim with the speech was to strengthen opposition to the deal with Iran, President Barack Obama's signature foreign policy objective. Lew is currently a managing partner at Lindsay Goldberg, a private equity firm, and a visiting professor at Columbia University in New York. A spokeswoman for Lew said he did not have any immediate comment on his nomination.