Opposition leader Yair Lapid on Friday paid tribute to Senator Dianne Feinstein, who passed away at the age of 90.
“I’d like to send my deepest condolences to the American people and our friends in the United States Senate on the passing of Senator Dianne Feinstein,” Lapid wrote in a post on X.
“She was a trailblazing leader and a model for how to serve the public with dignity and determination,” he added.
Feinstein was the oldest sitting member of the upper chamber and the longest-serving senator from her state, first elected to the Senate in 1992.
Feinstein announced in February ago that she would not seek reelection in 2024. In April 2022, she pushed back against a news report citing multiple anonymous colleagues expressing worry that she was mentally unfit to serve.
The Senator at times had a contentious relationship with Israel. In 2015, she launched a verbal attack against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who at the time was preparing to speak to Congress against the Iran deal.
Feinstein said at the time that Netanyahu is "arrogant" for asserting that he speaks for all Jews, adding that he doesn't speak for her.
In 2018, Feinstein joined Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in opposing a bill intended to protect Israel from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
A year later, she was one of six Democratic senators who introduced a resolution to restore US humanitarian aid to Palestinian Arabs in Judea, Samaria and Gaza.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Sukkot in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)