(JTA) — Jeffrey Goldberg, a longtime correspondent for The Atlantic who has written frequently about Middle East affairs, is the 159-year-old magazine’s new editor in chief.

Goldberg was chosen following a comprehensive search involving dozens of candidates, Atlantic Media announced Tuesday in a memo to employees obtained by The New York Times.

“It is fair to say that, together, we met a great deal of the nation’s top editorial talent,” Atlantic Media Chairman David Bradley wrote in the memo. “But, at least for us, Jeff is something set apart.”

Goldberg, 51, succeeds James Bennet, who left in April to become editorial page editor of The New York Times.

Goldberg has written for the magazine since 2007. His 11 Atlantic cover stories and other foreign policy reporting have earned him numerous awards. He often writes on Israel, including its relationship with the United States and its Middle Eastern neighbors.

Among his most talked about and provocative recent pieces are “Is It Time for the Jews to Leave Europe?” from 2015 and “The Obama Doctrine,” a 2016 article that delves into President Barack Obama’s opinions on the Middle East.

Before writing for The Atlantic, Goldberg worked at The Jerusalem Post and the Forward, and he wrote for outlets such as The New Yorker and The New York Times.

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in the 1980s, he moved to Israel, where he served in the Israeli Defense Forces. Goldberg detailed his experiences working at the Ketziot military camp, where he befriended a Palestinian prisoner and Palestine Liberation Organization leader named Rafiq Hijazi, in the 2006 book Prisoners: A Muslim and a Jew Across the Middle East Divide.

Goldberg eventually hopes to write in his new position, but told the Times that he probably would not have time in “the first year or two at least.”