Gesture to Jewish Community: Envoy for Anti-Semitism to Survive Foggy Bottom Overhaul

Most “special envoy” positions at the State Department are destined to being dropped as part of a Trump initiative to jettison extra-weight in the government and streamline the bureaucracy. But in an apparent gesture to the Jewish community, the special envoy for anti-Semitism will stay. In fact, all of those special envoy slots that relate to the Middle East will remain, including special envoy for Holocaust issues, to defeat ISIS, liaison to Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and another charged with the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Afghanistan, Pakistan and Guantanamo Bay, for instance, didn’t fare as well. But after urging from Jewish members of Congress and from American Jewish organizations the administration said it will authorize funding for two slots for envoys to the Office to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, according to the office of SecState Tillerson.