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The US Senate foreign relations committee on Wednesday voted to advance Jack Lew to be Washington's ambassador to Israel, in a bid to fill the post after historic violence in Gaza and Israel expedited his nomination process.
The committee voted 12-9 in favour of Mr Lew, with unified Democrats voting in favour and Republicans stiffly opposed to his confirmation.
The endorsement is a key hurdle before the issue goes to the broader Senate for an official confirmation vote. It comes as Israeli strikes in Gaza led the death toll there to rise to more than 6,500 on Wednesday, as the UN Security Council prepared to vote on proposals by the US and Russia to take action on the conflict.
Outside the hearing room, committee chairman Ben Cardin told reporters that getting the nomination to the Senate floor for an official vote is “our highest priority”.
“We have a lot of priorities in our committee, with ambassadors and confirmations of critical positions at the State Department. So we have a lot of priorities. But obviously, this is so visible and so important at this particular moment,” Mr Cardin said.
Mr Cardin pushed forward Mr Lew's nomination hearing as Washington works to mitigate the intensifying Israel-Gaza war.
Republican Senator Rand Paul was the only Republican to join Democrats in favour of Mr Lew's nomination.
Mr Cardin said he was “not surprised” that Mr Paul voted alongside Democrats and that outside the committee “there are conversations taking place” to bring more Republicans on board for the general vote.
Mr Lew was treasury secretary under former president Barack Obama, and faced opposition from Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee over his support of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal – which Israel strongly opposed. Republican committee members accused him of “misleading” Congress about the Iran nuclear deal negotiations.
Earlier this week, conservative Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who broke party lines and opposed the Iran nuclear deal in 2015, said in a statement that he endorsed Mr Lew's nomination. That key endorsement is likely to give Mr Lew the support needed to clinch confirmation in a narrowly divided Senate.
“I have known Jack Lew to be an honest and straightforward person throughout his many years in public service, and we have remained friends through those years despite our differing views on the Iran deal,” Mr Manchin said.
“Jack has agreed to support pushing to enforce and strengthen sanctions and other points of leverage including snapback against Iran for its support of terrorism and other destabilising activities.”
The US has not had an ambassador to Israel since Tom Nides left the post in July, leaving a hole in Washington's diplomatic presence in the Middle East as Israel responds to the Hamas attack.
At his nomination hearing last week, Mr Lew promised to “work to prevent other state or non-state actors from expanding this conflict to new fronts” and to “address the humanitarian crisis facing infants and millions of Gazans who are being used as human shields”.
He also vowed to continue Washington's policy of support for Israel and said he “firmly rejects” the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, known as BDS.
The latest from the Israel-Gaza war – in pictures
