Senate confirms Jack Lew as next US ambassador to Israel while war rages

The US Senate voted almost along party lines Tuesday to confirm former Treasury Secretary Jack Lew as the next US ambassador to Israel, as Republicans denounced the ex-Cabinet official as an “architect of the Obama-era Iran deal.”

The upper chamber voted 53-43 to send Lew to Jerusalem as the Jewish state wages war against Hamas terrorists, with every Democrat, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) supporting President Biden’s nominee.

Four Republicans — Mike Lee of Utah, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Tim Scott of South Carolina, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina — did not vote.

Paul and Graham also voted with Democrats to end debate on Lew’s nomination earlier Tuesday, and the Kentucky senator was the only Republican to support Lew in an earlier committee vote.

Israel has carried out airstrikes targeting senior Hamas commanders and begun a ground assault in northern Gaza following the terror group’s Oct. 7 attack that killed more than 1,400 people, including at least 33 Americans.

The jihadists also took an additional 200-plus hostage and carried out a campaign of atrocities against women and children.

Lew was confirmed as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have pushed for a joint $106 billion package that includes aid for Israel and Ukraine.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has opposed the comprehensive plan, favoring a separate vote in the lower chamber on the $14.3 billion in Israel aid requested by the president, setting up a fight with the Democrat-run Senate.

Schumer called Lew “a ferocious ally of Israel” and thanked the Foreign Relations Committee for voting 12-9 to move his nomination to the floor.

“With everything happening in Israel right now, confirming Jack Lew at this moment will be one of the most important and consequential nominations votes the Senate has taken in a long time,” Schumer said.

“The need to confirm Mr. Lew is plain and irrefutable. Israel’s in crisis. America needs to stand with her. A most urgent and obvious step is to ensure we have an ambassador in place.”

But Senate Republicans disagreed.

“I just opposed Jack Lew’s nomination to be ambassador to Israel,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) posted on X.

“We should be fully standing with Israel, but this architect of the Obama-era Iran deal paved a way for the regime to inflict its damage today.”

In a Fox News op-ed published Monday, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) also criticized Lew for backing the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which provided sanctions relief in exchange for a reduction in Iran’s uranium stockpiles.

“Lew called the agreement with Iran, which delivered over $100 billion in sanctions relief to Israel’s greatest enemy, a ‘strong deal’ and said that ‘it will make our country safer, it will make our allies safer, and it will make the world safer,’” Cotton wrote.

“Our allies in Israel disagreed. In fact, Prime Minister Netanyahu called the agreement, ‘a very bad deal,’” the Arkansas Republican added, referring to Netanyahu’s March 2015 address to the US Congress.

Tom Nides, the last US ambassador to Israel confirmed by the Senate, left the Biden administration in July, leaving Stephanie Hallett as the top official at the embassy.