Assistant secretary Stuart Levey is set to leave Treasury. A holdover from the Bush administration — yes, why did he stay on? — he was the administration’s point man on Iran sanctions.
And p.s. he studied in Israel as a young man and addressed AIPAC in a friendly fashion. All these things were surely meaningful to the Israel lobby. (As Abe Foxman lately said (to the Forward) of Obama aide Dennis Ross: “Dennis is the closest thing you’ll find to a melitz yosher, as far as Israel is concerned.” Using a Hebrew term for “advocate.”) And who will replace him?
Senior Obama administration officials disclosed Mr. Levey’s departure, after nearly a decade in government service, but stressed that it doesn’t signal a shift in U.S. policy…
They said the White House is set to nominate David Cohen, Mr. Levey’s deputy at Treasury and longtime confidante, to succeed him as the undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence….
Mr. Cohen, 48, is a Democrat who was a partner with Mr. Levey at a Washington law firm.
