Peter Deutsch, a former Democratic congressman from South Florida who endorsed Donald Trump for president last month, has recently spoken with multiple people about his interest in becoming the next U.S. ambassador to Israel, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Deutsch, who spent the past month volunteering as a Trump surrogate in Pennsylvania and splits his time between Florida and Israel, has not been in direct touch with the campaign about the role, one source confirmed to Jewish Insider on Wednesday. 

But he has had conversations with some leading pro-Israel activists who could potentially influence the selection process — including Sander Gerber, a hedge fund executive who helped write the Taylor Force Act.

“He would be an excellent ambassador to Israel,” Gerber said of Deutsch, whom he has known for decades. Deutsch, who was seen as an outspoken party loyalist during his time in Congress, “has a unique profile because he was a Democrat but he felt very, very strongly about the Trump campaign,” Gerber added. 

Gerber told JI that Deutsch’s name “has been floated” to the Trump team, but declined to share additional details about whether he is under serious consideration for the role. “There are a number of candidates, but Peter’s one of them,” he said. “I think it’d be great to have a U.S. ambassador who has relationships within the pro-Israel Democrat community.”

In addition to Gerber, Deutsch, 67, has been in touch with Rob Bassin, a former longtime AIPAC political director who now serves as chief executive of the pro-Israel lobbying group’s super PAC, United Democracy Project, according to sources. 

“Deutsch is interested in the job and is indicating his interest within the pro-Israel community to different organizations,” said one source familiar with the former congressman’s recent outreach. 

The ambassadorship would likely be among the Trump administration’s most important diplomatic posts abroad, amid a widening regional war that the president-elect has vowed to end when he returns to office.

Deutsch, an Orthodox Jew who served in the House between 1993 and 2005, had once been regarded as a fierce defender of the Democratic Party who rose to national prominence amid the contested Florida recount of 2000, centered in his home district.

But last month, on the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attacks, he emerged from relative obscurity to announce his endorsement of Trump, citing concerns over Israel’s security as the top issue motivating his defection from a party he now sees as recklessly misguided on Middle East policy.

Deutsch, who worked on outreach to Jewish swing voters in Pennsylvania during the election, is now a vociferous supporter of Trump, whose Middle East policy achievements he has long endorsed — even as he had raised concerns about the president-elect’s “erratic nature,” as he put it in an interview with JI in 2020.  

Speaking with JI days before the election, however, he argued that “any thoughtful Jew that votes for Kamala Harris needs to have their head examined,” echoing a controversial line frequently repeated by Trump.

For nearly the past 20 years, Deutsch, who until recently had largely been disengaged from politics, has traveled between Israel and Florida, where he founded a network of Hebrew charter schools. He has no diplomatic experience. Deutch declined to comment on the record.

As Trump’s team prepares for a second term, his former ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, who was the president-elect’s bankruptcy lawyer before taking the diplomatic posting, has been viewed as possibly returning to the role, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Friedman has also voiced interest in becoming Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations — a position that is reportedly being eyed by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY).

Howard Lutnick, Trump’s transition team co-chair had reportedly been rumored as a candidate for the ambassadorship in Israel, but he has said he has “no interest” in the role.

The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.