Black and white photograph of a man with glasses and gray hair speaking into a microphone, wearing a dark suit, white shirt, and striped tie, with a ribbon lapel pin.

Jack Lew

United States Ambassador to Israel (2023-2025)

Current: Professor, Columbia School of International and Public Affairs

During his term as the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew habitually censored vital messaging about Israeli war crimes.

In 2024, while serving as the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew received five internal warnings from staffers at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) that described northern Gaza as an “apocalyptic Wasteland,” with human bones on roads, dead bodies in cars, and “catastrophic human needs, particularly for food and safe drinking water.” According to Reuters, Lew and his deputy Stephanie Hallett “blocked the cable from wider distribution within the United States government because they believed it lacked balance.”

Additionally, Lew continued to defend Israel’s actions, calling later warnings of famine in Gaza inaccurate and “irresponsible.” The warnings were distributed by the U.S.-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network, a subgroup of USAID. 

Lew also sent Secretary of State Antony Blinken a cable recommending that Israel be in charge of managing aid shipments to Gaza and that the U.S. continue to send weapons shipments, with the knowledge that Israel had long been blocking aid.