Dan Shapiro, former Ambassador to Israel, tapped as Biden administration’s Abraham Accords envoy
Shapiro will spearhead an effort to expand the number of countries normalizing relations with Israel

Daniel Shapiro , former ambassador of the United States to Israel, on Dec. 12, 2018. Photo by Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro was tapped on Thursday as the Biden administration’s official charged to advance regional peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
Shapiro, 53, was ambassador to Israel under President Barack Obama and built a healthy working relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a contentious period between the leaders of both countries. He stayed in Israel after his term ended in 2017, and most recently served as a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Middle East Programs.
His appointment as a senior adviser to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken for regional integration indicates a serious administration effort to expand the number of countries normalizing relations with Israel. “Dan will support U.S. efforts to advance a more peaceful and interconnected region, deepen and broaden the Abraham Accords, and build the Negev Forum,” Blinken said in a Twitter announcement.
President Joe Biden has publicly committed to pursuing these agreements during the campaign and early on in his presidency, even though they were a signature Donald Trump policy.
Netanyahu has set peace with Saudi Arabia as a goal since returning to office in December, suggesting it would be a diplomatic “quantum leap” that would end the Israeli-Arab conflict and Iran’s aggression in the region. But the efforts to expand the Abraham Accords have grown more complicated in recent months amid mass protests in Israel over the Netanyahu government’s judicial overhaul plan, which has dismayed many American Jews, as has recent violence between Israeli Jews and Palestinians.
Jewish American groups and national security experts welcomed the appointment.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
Culture Did this Jewish literary titan have the right idea about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling after all?
- 3
Opinion I first met Netanyahu in 1988. Here’s how he became the most destructive leader in Israel’s history.
- 4
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture In Germany, a Jewish family is reunited with a treasured family object — but also a sense of exile
-
Opinion Trump’s heedless approach to an Iran deal could be a big problem for Israel
-
Fast Forward In NYC, Itamar Ben-Gvir says he’s changed — and wants ‘the Trump plan’ in Gaza
-
Opinion Itamar Ben-Gvir’s visit to a Jewish society at Yale exposed deep rifts between US Jews
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.