Israel | News

Jason Greenblatt has a new job dealing with the Middle East — as a businessman rather than peace builder

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Instead of trying to bring peace to the Middle East, former Trump administration envoy Jason Greenblatt will now try to bring investments.

Greenblatt will join the global venture investments platform OurCrowd as a partner with responsibility for building ties in the region, the company announced Wednesday.

After spending three years working to form President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan, he stepped down from his position in October, three months before its rollout. His new job will leverage the relationships he formed while working on the plan, Bloomberg News reported.

Greenblatt was a keynote speaker at the OurCrowd Global Investor Summit this month in Jerusalem, delivering the message that economic cooperation can bring Israelis, Palestinians and the wider Middle East together.

OurCrowd said in a statement announcing Greenblatt’s position that it has been working behind the scenes to forge ties between Israel’s startup ecosystem and its Middle East neighbors despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties. The OurCrowd Summit included participants from every nation in the Arab League.

Greenblatt told Bloomberg that he would focus his efforts on the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.