Senate Republicans are signaling the path to confirming President Joe Biden’s nominee to be the U.S. ambassador to Israel may not be smooth – as the position remains empty more than a week into the escalating Israel-Hamas war.
“I know Democrats are saying that we need to confirm Jack Lew quickly to show our support for Israel. I would say it’s the exact opposite,” Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said in an interview with Fox News. “We need to defeat Jack Lew’s nomination to show we have a new approach to Iran.”
The U.S. has been without a permanent ambassador in Jerusalem since Tom Nides departed from the role in July. Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7 prompted Democrats to push for urgency in confirming Biden’s pick for the role, former Obama administration official Jack Lew, amid concerns about the position staying unfilled during a war.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is set to hold a hearing on Lew on Wednesday.
“The Senate must confirm an ambassador to Israel ASAP,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote on X — the platform formerly known as Twitter — on Monday night, adding the president “sent us a capable, strong nominee in Jack Lew, who will come before the Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday.”
“I urge them to pass him out of committee so we can bring him to the floor and confirm him with all due haste,” Schumer continued.
But Schumer would need support from all 100 senators to expedite proceedings on a confirmation vote in the full body. Indications from several GOP Senators that they will fight Lew’s confirmation means the process is more likely to be drawn-out than swift – leaving Schumer to rely on more lengthy steps to confirm Lew with a majority of senators.
“We’ve got a lot of resistance to it over Iran,” Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-SD, told CNN regarding Lew’s confirmation. “And I think that’s, I think that’ll probably play heavily.”
Republicans have been critical of Lew, who served as Treasury Secretary under former President Barack Obama, for his role in the nuclear deal between the U.S. and Iran as well as a subsequent payment during the Obama administration from the U.S. to Iran over a settlement on an arms deal. The State Department also said at the time it delayed the payment to make sure several American citizens being held in Iran were released.
Under the 2015 nuclear deal, the U.S. agreed to ease billions of dollars in sanctions on Iran in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program, with the goal of preventing Iran from ever developing an atomic weapon. Former President Donald Trump pulled out of the agreement in 2018.
“Jack Lew is an Iran sympathizer who has no business being our ambassador. It’s bad for the United States, it’s bad for Israel to have an Iran sympathizer as our ambassador to that country,” Cotton said.
“Jack Lew, Biden’s nom to be USAMB to Israel, was key point man in negotiations & disinfo campaign for Obama’s dangerously flawed deal w Iran,” Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., said in a post on X. “Lew must answer for the failed Obama-Biden Middle East strategy as he appears before the Senate Foreign Relations committee for his confirmation hearing next week.”
Iran has been a key topic of discussion and GOP criticism of the Biden administration amid the conflict in the Middle East. This summer, the Biden administration allowed $6 billion of Iranian funds to be moved from South Korea to a bank in Qatar for Tehran to use on humanitarian purposes. The agreement was part of a deal for Iran to release five American citizens who were imprisoned in Iran.
Iran has long backed Hamas and amid the war, many Republicans and some Democrats have called on the Biden administration to ensure Iran cannot access the money.
Administration officials have emphasized that thus far, none of the money has been spent and if it was, it could only be used for humanitarian purposes. But neither Blinken nor Kirby last week would directly say whether the U.S. and Qatar made a deal to deny Iran access, as multiple outlets reported.
