WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), released the following statement after voting against Jacob “Jack” Lew’s nomination to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the State of Israel. The Senate confirmed Lew by a vote of 53-43.
During the Obama administration, Lew served in a variety of roles including White House chief of staff, secretary of the treasury, director of the Office of Management and Budget, and deputy secretary of State for management and resources. In 2015, Lew wrote, negotiated, and defended the Iran Nuclear Deal, in which Tehran agreed to scale back its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
“Jacob Lew’s nomination to serve as our Ambassador to Israel is a terrible message to our closest friend and ally in the region. His work as an architect of the Iran Nuclear Deal should have been an automatic disqualifier. You cannot claim to support Israel while you actively work against it by coddling our mutual adversary and the largest state sponsor of terrorism, Iran. The Biden administration seems hellbent on broadcasting its lukewarm support of Israel to the world, and Jacob Lew’s nomination is no exception. As far as I’m concerned, my vote against him was a vote to support Israel.”