Dan Shapiro being sworn in as the 19th United States Ambassador to Israel, Julu 8, 2015. (Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro will join a Tel Aviv-based think tank as a visiting fellow.
The Institute for National Security Studies announced the appointment on its website on Sunday.
Shapiro will participate in several of the institute’s research programs, including those on Israel-U.S. relations, Israeli-Palestinian relations, the Arab world, and Israeli society and public opinion, according to the announcement. According to the think tank, he will study opportunities and make policy recommendations to strengthen the U.S.-Israel strategic, economic and societal partnership, and to preserve, expand and strengthen the common interests between the two states.
INSS Director Amos Yadlin said that Shapiro “possesses keen insight, deep experience, and a broad network of relationships in Israel, the United States, and the Middle East.”
Shapiro was appointed to his post by former President Barack Obama in July 2011. He resigned on Jan. 20, vacating the position for President Donald Trump’s appointee, David Friedman.
Shapiro reportedly took the unusual step of asking the State Department for permission to stay in Israel as a private citizen so that his daughter could complete the school year. His daughter is in the 11th grade, a year that is heavy with Israeli matriculation exams.
At the end of January, Shapiro wrote an article for Foreign Policy, in which he laid out a path for moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, a stated goal of the Trump administration.
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