Gaza Board Taps Ex-Biden Aide

Shelley Greenspan, who served as President Joe Biden’s liaison to the Jewish community, has been appointed to a senior role at the Board of Peace. She will begin work next week under senior advisers Josh Gruenbaum and Aryeh Lightstone. Her primary responsibility is congressional outreach, with a specific focus on winning support from Democratic lawmakers for the board and the administration’s 20-point Gaza peace plan.

The appointment targets a specific strategic gap. The Trump administration aims to prevent the Gaza peace plan from becoming a short-lived initiative tied solely to the current Republican executive. By securing bipartisan backing now, the administration intends to ensure that a future Democratic president, potentially elected in 2028, continues to implement the plan and support the board’s operations. This strategy directly addresses concerns that the initiative could stall when political control shifts.

Greenspan brings a specific career path to the role. She is the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors. Her resume includes service on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign research team, work at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and management positions at technology firms including Amazon. She also held roles at the State Department and the National Security Council, where she focused on global partnerships.

In a statement to The Jerusalem Post, Greenspan described her appointment as an honor. She noted that her time at the State Department allowed her to observe how the 20-point plan could provide tangible benefits to the people of Gaza and Israel. She expressed a desire to continue that work within the Board of Peace structure.

The Board of Peace issued its own statement praising Greenspan’s cross-partisan experience. The board noted that she earned trust in both Democratic and Republican administrations through her service at the White House, National Security Council, and State Department. The board stated that sustained support from Congress is essential for the work ahead and that Greenspan is uniquely capable of leading that effort.

Recent signals of Democratic interest in the plan have increased. Prominent figures including former US ambassador to Israel Jack Lew, former senior Biden adviser Brett McGurk, and Hillary Clinton have voiced support in recent months. Clinton, the former secretary of state and Democratic presidential nominee, wrote in the Financial Times that while the 20-point plan is not the framework many Democrats would have drafted, it remains the only option backed by sufficient leverage, political engagement, and potential resources to move the parties toward implementation.

The administration’s approach reflects lessons drawn from the Abraham Accords. In 2020, President Trump announced normalization agreements between Israel and several Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan. The goal was to secure further deals with Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. However, the Biden administration largely paused new normalization efforts after taking office in January 2021. Critics argued the new team was reluctant to use the term “Abraham Accords” to avoid crediting the previous administration. It was not until June 2023 that Secretary of State Antony Blinken appointed Dan Shapiro, a former US ambassador to Israel, as a senior adviser and special envoy for expanding those accords.

Greenspan’s new role positions the Board of Peace to engage directly with these Democratic voices. She will work alongside Gruenbaum and Lightstone to translate recent expressions of support into sustained legislative backing for the 20-point plan.