A wind of change is blowing in relations between Israel and the United States.

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday (June 15) appointed experienced Democrat Thomas Nides as ambassador to Israel, two days after a new government took office eager to renew ties.

Thomas Nides, a former banker at Morgan Stanley, had, as a senior State Department official under President Barack Obama, defended funding intended for the Palestinians.

This choice marks a clear change from the previous American Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, a staunch defender of the warmongering policy of the Hebrew state, appointed by Donald Trump.

Defending aid to the Palestinians

Thomas Nides was raised in a Jewish family in Duluth, Minnesota, a state in the northern United States.

A senior State Department official, Nides had opposed attempts by Republicans in Congress to withdraw funding intended for the UN agency for aid to Palestinian refugees, a measure taken by Donald Trump but to which Joe Biden returned.

Michael Oren, former Israeli ambassador to Washington, wrote in 2011 that Thomas Nides had called him to argue passionately against attempts by Congress to cut funding for the United Nations (UN) cultural agency, Unesco, after he 'it admitted Palestine as a member state.

Mr. Nides had said, in colorful language, that Israel would not want to see funding cut for Unesco, which played a role in educating about the history of the Holocaust.

The appointment of Thomas Nides, which had been the subject of rumors for weeks, has yet to be confirmed in the Senate, where Democrats have a narrow majority.

A new page for Israeli-American relations

Taking office on Monday, the new heterogeneous coalition led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett (radical right) and his partner the centrist Yaïr Lapid, ended the 12-year reign of Benjamin Netanyahu.

The former prime minister had strained relations with Democrats after fighting Obama's Iranian policies, rejecting pro-Palestinian state initiatives and aligning himself with Republicans.

The first head of state to respond, Joe Biden, immediately congratulated Mr. Bennett, who is a defender of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, but governs in coalition with centrist and left parties.

With AFP

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