Ambassador of the United States to the State of Israel שגריר ארצות הברית לישראל سفير الولايات المتحدة لدى إسرائيل | |
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Nominator | The President of the United States |
Appointer | The President with Senate advice and consent |
Inaugural holder | James Grover McDonald as Ambassador |
Formation | March 28, 1949 |
Website | U.S. Embassy - Jerusalem |
The United States ambassador to Israel is the official representative of the president of the United States to the head of state of Israel.
Until 1948 the area that is now the state of Israel had been under British administration as part of the League of Nations/United Nations British Mandate for Palestine. On May 14, 1948, the British government unilaterally terminated the mandate. On the same day, the Jewish Agency, under future Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, declared independence and named the country Israel. The United States immediately recognized the nation and moved to establish diplomatic relations. The first U.S. ambassador commissioned to Israel was James Grover McDonald, who presented his credentials to the government of Israel on March 28, 1949. [1] The ambassador holds the title Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary.
The embassy of the United States in Israel is located at 14 David Flusser Street in Jerusalem.
Image | Name | Appointed | Presented credentials | Terminated mission |
---|---|---|---|---|
James Grover McDonald – Political appointee | March 18, 1949 | March 28, 1949 | December 13, 1950 | |
Monnett Bain Davis – Career FSO | February 1, 1951 | February 26, 1951 | Died at post December 26, 1953 | |
Edward B. Lawson – Career FSO | April 9, 1954 | November 12, 1954 | February 17, 1959 | |
Ogden Rogers Reid – Political Appointee | June 5, 1959 | July 2, 1959 | Left Israel January 19, 1961 | |
Walworth Barbour – Career FSO | May 11, 1961 | June 12, 1961 | January 19, 1973 | |
Kenneth B. Keating – Political appointee | June 22, 1973 | August 28, 1973 | Died in New York May 5, 1975 [2] | |
Malcolm Toon – Career FSO | June 9, 1975 | July 10, 1975 | December 27, 1976 | |
Samuel W. Lewis – Career FSO | April 26, 1977 | May 25, 1977 | May 31, 1985 | |
Thomas R. Pickering – Career FSO | July 12, 1985 | August 6, 1985 | December 28, 1988 | |
William Andreas Brown – Career FSO [3] | November 22, 1988 | December 29, 1988 | January 7, 1992 | |
William Caldwell Harrop – Career FSO | November 21, 1991 | January 21, 1992 | May 7, 1993 | |
Edward Djerejian – Career FSO | November 22, 1993 | January 13, 1994 | August 9, 1994 | |
Martin Indyk – Political appointee | March 4, 1995 | April 10, 1995 | September 27, 1997 | |
Edward S. Walker, Jr. – Career FSO | November 10, 1997 | December 24, 1997 | January 23, 2000 | |
Martin Indyk – Political appointee | November 16, 1999 | January 25, 2000 | July 13, 2001 | |
Daniel C. Kurtzer – Career FSO | July 12, 2001 | July 18, 2001 | July 17, 2005 | |
Richard Henry Jones – Career FSO | August 2, 2005 | September 26, 2005 | April 27, 2008 | |
James B. Cunningham – Career FSO | June 30, 2008 | September 17, 2008 | May 21, 2011 | |
Daniel B. Shapiro – Political appointee | July 8, 2011 [4] | August 3, 2011 | January 20, 2017 | |
David M. Friedman – Political appointee | March 23, 2017 | May 15, 2017 | January 20, 2021 | |
Thomas R. Nides – Political appointee | November 3, 2021 | December 5, 2021 | July 21, 2023 | |
Stephanie Hallett – Career FSO - Chargé d'affaires ad interim | July 21, 2023 [5] | N/A | November 5, 2023 | |
Jack Lew - Political appointee | October 31, 2023 [6] | November 5, 2023 | Incumbent | |
List source: [7]
The history of the State of Palestine describes the creation and evolution of the State of Palestine in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. During the British mandate period, numerous plans of partition of Palestine were proposed but without the agreement of all parties. In 1947, the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine was voted for. The leaders of the Jewish Agency for Palestine accepted parts of the plan, while Arab leaders refused it. This triggered the 1947–1949 Palestine war and led, in 1948, to the establishment of the state of Israel on a part of Mandate Palestine as the Mandate came to an end.
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Corpus separatum was the internationalization proposal for Jerusalem and its surrounding area as part of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine. It was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly with a two-thirds majority in November 1947. According to the Partition Plan, the city of Jerusalem would be brought under international governance, conferring it a special status due to its shared importance for the Abrahamic religions. The legal base ("Statute") for this arrangement was to be reviewed after ten years and put to a referendum. The corpus separatum was again one of the main issues of the post-war Lausanne Conference of 1949, besides the borders of Israel and the question of the Palestinian right of return.
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Israel–United Kingdom relations, or Anglo-Israeli relations, are the diplomatic and commercial ties between the United Kingdom and Israel. The British embassy to Israel is located in Tel Aviv. The UK has an honorary consul in Eilat and a non-accredited consulate-general in Jerusalem, that represents the United Kingdom in that city and the Palestinian territories. Israel has three representative offices in the United Kingdom: an Embassy located in London and consulates in Cardiff and Glasgow. As of 2023 trade exceeded 6.1 billion British pounds. Israel and the UK engage together in scientific research, defence and the development of new technologies, with the UK seeking to tap into Israel's considerable high technology sector through local British initiatives. The UK since 2011 has sought to partner British companies with Israeli advanced technology companies. The UK Israeli cooperation has generated £1.2 billion as well as 16,000 British jobs of 250 such partnerships. The United Kingdom and Israel are currently negotiating renewing a free trade agreement.
Thomas Richard Nides is an American banker and government official who served as the United States ambassador to Israel from December 2021 to July 2023. From 2013 to 2021, he was the managing director and vice-chairman of Morgan Stanley, serving as a member of the firm's management and operating committee. Nides was previously appointed the deputy secretary of state for management and resources from 2011 to 2013 during the Obama administration. He has served in various financial and governmental roles throughout his life.
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The Embassy of the United States of America in Jerusalem is the diplomatic mission of the United States of America to the State of Israel. It is located in Talpiot, a neighborhood in southeastern Jerusalem. In mid-October 2018, Mike Pompeo, the Secretary of State under the Trump administration, declared that the new embassy would be merging with the Consulate General, through which the United States had maintained diplomatic relations with the Palestinian Authority. Currently, all diplomacy between the United States and the Palestinians is conducted through the "Office of Palestine Affairs" inside of the American embassy for Israel.