Kurtzer to Syria?

Capital J

By Eric Fingerhut · July 1, 2009

Laura Rozen at Foreign Policy.com reports on some possible choices for the new ambassador to Syria, and a former ambassasdor to Israel is one of them. She says Dan Kurtzer, who was an early surrogate for President Obama in the Jewish community during the campaign, is a possibility. The other name she mentions is Jake Walles, currently serving as the U.S. consul general in Jerusalem.

Rozen also has news on positions possible being filled at the State Department's Near East Affairs department, and some moves for some familiar names at the Brookings Institution:

Ronald Schlicher, a career Foreign Service officer who previously served as the consul general in Jerusalem, is expected to be named principal deputy assistant secretary of state, diplomatic and Washington Middle East hands say. The Brookings Institution's Tamara Cofman Wittes is a candidate to be the deputy assistant secretary who oversees Middle East democracy issues. The job, which was previously held by Liz Cheney and J. Scott Carpenter, has been fashioned to focus on "Arab reform." Wittes declined to comment, and Schlicher couldn't immediately be reached. ...

Brookings:

Because Brookings' director of Foreign Policy Studies, Carlos Pascual, has been nominated to be Obama's ambassador to Mexico, some shuffles are expected at the think tank. As previously reported, Martin Indyk, former U.S. ambassador to Israel and current director of Brookings' Saban Center for Middle East Policy, is expected to succeed Pascual. Kenneth Pollack, a former CIA analyst, is expected to be named director of the Saban Center. (He didn't respond to a query.)