President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced former Treasury secretary Jack Lew as his nominee for ambassador to Israel, the White House said in a statement.
Lew is chairman of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, which advocates closer ties between the United States and China. The group has hosted senior CCP officials, and as head of the group Lew met in Beijing with China's foreign minister. One intelligence analyst described the group as "consistently soft on China."
Lew, if confirmed by the U.S. Senate, will face a complicated political situation, as Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushes through a judicial overhaul opposed by the Biden administration.
He would succeed Ambassador Tom Nides in the post.
In addition to Treasury secretary, Lew served under former president Barack Obama as White House chief of staff and deputy secretary of state for management and resources.
Lew was director of the Office of Management and Budget, a position in President Bill Clinton's Cabinet, from 1998 to 2001. In both the Democratic Clinton and Obama administrations, Lew served on the National Security Council.
Earlier, as special assistant to Clinton, he was an architect of the national service program, Americorps.
(Reporting by Paul Grant; editing by Doina Chiacu)