In a previous article, I mentioned the unique qualities required for appointing American ambassadors to Israel, which are vastly different from the standards for ambassadors to other countries. Historically, nearly all American ambassadors posted to Israel have prioritized Israeli interests and sensitivities over those of their own country.
Martin Indyk was the first Jewish American ambassador to Israel, appointed in 1995. Especially in the last 23 years, the ambassadors appointed have had professional backgrounds that reveal how intertwined the United States and Israel are.
Daniel Kurtzer spent 29 years in the U.S. State Department, serving as ambassador to Egypt from 1997 to 2001 and as ambassador to Israel from 2001 to 2005, succeeding Martin Indyk. He earned his doctorate in Middle Eastern Studies from Princeton University. After retiring in 2005, he became affiliated with Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson Center, contributing to U.S. foreign policy on Egypt, Israel, and Iraq under every administration from Bush Sr. to Obama. Kurtzer was also a patron of Israel’s baseball league, and his son, Yehuda Kurtzer, is a well-known Jewish intellectual in the U.S.
Dan Shapiro served as U.S. ambassador to Israel from 2011 to 2017. Before that, in 2007, he was affiliated with the pro-Israel lobbying group Timmons & Company, advising the Obama administration on the Middle East and the Jewish voter base. Shapiro was also a Middle East and North Africa adviser at the National Security Council in 2009. After his six-year tenure as ambassador, he began teaching national security at Tel Aviv University. In 2021, President Biden tasked him with coordinating U.S.-Israel relations concerning Iran. Shapiro is currently part of the lobbying firm WestExec Advisors, co-founded by Antony Blinken and David Cohen. He is also on the Jerusalem Post’s list of the world’s 50 most influential Jews.
David Friedman served as U.S. ambassador to Israel from May 2017 to January 2021. Son of the Jewish rabbi Morris Friedman, David is a lawyer by profession and a fervent supporter of Israel. He raised $2 million in donations for a Jewish settlement in the West Bank. Friedman is ideologically opposed to the two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. During Trump’s presidential campaign, he advocated for moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a promise that President Trump later fulfilled, effectively recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Friedman’s appointment was highly controversial, receiving only narrow approval in the U.S. Senate.
In his recent book, The Solution to the Problem: One State, Friedman argues that Palestinians do not deserve another state, asserting that Jordan is already their state and that, according to the Bible, the West Bank belongs to the Jews and should formally become part of Israel. Friedman also featured on the Jerusalem Post’s list of the 50 most influential global Jewish figures from 2019 to 2023. He and Jared Kushner were even nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for their role in facilitating the Abraham Accords between Israel, Bahrain, and the UAE. Friedman’s daughter, Talia, obtained permanent Israeli citizenship in 2017.
Thomas Nides served as U.S. ambassador to Israel from November 2021 to July 2023. Born into a Jewish family in Minnesota, Nides is the son of Arnold Nides, a staunch Zionist who founded the organization Temple Israel. Thomas Nides was the head of the investment group Morgan Stanley for eight years and served as the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources under President Obama. He was also actively involved in Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and would have become the White House Chief of Staff if she had won. Like others before him, Nides appeared on the Jerusalem Post’s list of the 50 most powerful Jews in 2022. He identifies as a Reform Jew, and his wife is a senior vice president at CNN.
Jack Lew has been the U.S. ambassador to Israel since October 2023. Among all American ambassadors to Israel, Jack Lew stands out as he has held key positions, including Secretary of the Treasury and White House Chief of Staff under President Obama. He studied at Harvard and Georgetown University and comes from a conservative Jewish family. Lew was also the head of Citibank and vice president of New York University. He was a strong advocate of the Iran nuclear deal but actively worked to dismiss the UN’s 2009 Goldstone Report, which labeled Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide.
Many American special envoys for Middle East peace mediation also have Jewish backgrounds. For example, Dennis Ross, the Middle East envoy during the Clinton era, hailed from a conservative Jewish family in San Francisco. Ross served as the Director of Policy Planning at the State Department during Bush Sr.’s presidency and later as an advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the Gulf and Southwest Asia. He is currently associated with pro-Israel think tanks like the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the Jewish People Policy Institute. Former Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath once remarked that Dennis Ross is “more pro-Israel than the Israelis themselves.” A senior U.S. State Department official similarly noted that Ross, as a mediator, often took Israel into confidence before making any decisions.
Due to the length of this article, I have omitted further names, but the current and previous articles should give you a sense of how U.S. Middle East policy remains in “safe hands.”