New person in a WASP stronghold 

While all eyes in the world were on Paris following the terror attacks last week, and in Israel people were following the huge winter storm that hit the country, US President Barack Obama announced the appointment of David Cohen to be the deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

This is the most senior appointment of a Jew in the history of the CIA, which has been a WASP stronghold since it was founded. Just in the last decade-and-a-half individuals from minority groups in the US have begun to obtain middle and high level positions at the agency.  The number of Jews on staff at the CIA has been, and remains, relatively few. In the past, the CIA representative in Israel was Jewish.

Cohen is now the second most important Jewish figure in the Obama administration following the United States Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew, who he worked under.

Meet David Cohen: The Jewish ‘sanctions guru’ appointed deputy chief of the CIA