Former US Consul General to Jerusalem Michael Ratney has been tapped by Secretary of State Antony Blinken to serve as acting US ambassador to Israel until the position can be filled by a permanent appointee and confirmed by the Senate. Ratney served in Jerusalem from 2012 to 2015 under then-US President Barack Obama and later acted as Obama’s special envoy to Syria and as the State Department’s deputy assistant secretary for the Levant and Israel-Palestinian affairs.
He is expected to arrive in Jerusalem on June 1, reported Axios.
Ratney has drawn criticism for his alleged role in directing $465,000 in State Department funds to a peace organization called OneVoice, which was linked to Victory 15, a group that campaigned against Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in the March 2015 Israeli election. In 2016, a Senate subcommittee report found that Ratner had deleted emails related to the funding of OneVoice.