Oren’s lopsided book reveals true feelings of Israel

James Zogby on why the new book written by Michael Oren, former Israeli Ambassador to the US, is instructive and disturbing on many levels.

Former Israeli ambassador to the US Michael B. Oren speaks in Washington during an event to commemorate Holocaust victims and survivors on April 2012. Benjamin Myers / Reuters

In his new book, Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide, former Israeli ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, relates how late one night he received a frantic call from Benjamin Netanyahu alerting him to the fact that the Palestinians were preparing to petition the UN to recognise Palestine as a state. Mr Netanyahu’s message to his ambassador was to immediately start calling US politicians urging them to block the move. Congress, of course, was most responsive with members immediately issuing statements condemning the Palestinian move and threats to withhold US aid to the Palestinian Authority.

I will get back to what this little story tells us about Israel’s relationship with the US Congress and the role that body’s support plays in shaping Israeli behaviour, but first I want to make a few broader comments about Ally.

The book is disturbing on many levels. First, I was struck by the arrogance with which Ally was written. No one who criticises Israel is spared from Mr Oren’s venomous pen, but two targets receive special attention: Barack Obama and liberal American Jews.

Although Mr Oren is a former diplomat and now a member of Israel’s Knesset, his attacks on the US president are brutal and insulting. He accuses Mr Obama of betraying Israel by violating what he claims are the two principles of US-Israeli relations: that there be “no surprises” and “no daylight” between the public positions taken by leaders of either country.

According to Mr Oren, Mr Obama violated these principles when he failed to provide Mr Netanyahu with an advance copy of his Cairo speech and when, in 2011, the US president announced that the 1967 borders should be the basis for a lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace. Apparently, for Mr Oren, these same “principles” do not apply to the Israeli side, since he is loathe to find fault with his own prime minister.

I was startled by the personal contempt Mr Oren demonstrates for the US president. He accuses him of harbouring anti-American ideas and not fully appreciating “American exceptionalism”. And he indulges in demeaning amateur psychology suggesting that Mr Obama’s outreach to the Muslim world was prompted by his need to become reconciled with his two estranged fathers (one who was Kenyan, the other Indonesian).

Mr Oren also focuses significant attention on liberal US Jews who are critical of Israel. He accuses them of being insecure and self-haters. He charges that they criticise Israel and its prime minister in an effort to say: “I’m Jewish ... but I’m not one of those Jews.”

Having dismissed the policies of the US president – that have essentially been consistent with those of his predecessors – and the criticisms that liberal American Jews have offered of Likud’s efforts to sabotage a two-state solution, Mr Oren and Mr Netanyahu can feel vindicated. It is their critics who are wrong precisely because they are personally flawed and have joined the anti-Israel cabal in attacking the Jewish state.

Being incapable of accepting criticism, where do the Orens and the Netanyahus of the world go for validation? To Congress, of course.

Congress’s role as protector and enabler of Israeli interests and behaviour has been on full display in recent weeks. It passed a trade bill that included a provision that for the first time since the 1967 war “conflated Israel and ‘Israeli-controlled’ territories”. Dozens of members of Congress and Senators lined up to issue statements decrying a potential nuclear deal with Iran – with many quoting from the pro-Israel lobby’s talking points on the deal. Others issued statements denouncing either the UN’s report on the 2014 Gaza war or the Palestinian response to inquiries from the International Criminal Court.

To its credit, and to the consternation of Mr Oren and Mr Netanyahu, the Obama administration response was clear. The US will not accept Congress’s false “conflation”, noting that “every administration since 1967 ... has opposed Israeli settlement activity. The US government has never defended or supported Israeli settlements and ... does not pursue policies or activities that would legitimise them”.

On Iran, the administration let it be known that it will continue to pursue a “good deal” that will end the threat of an Iranian nuclear weapon. And finally, the administration stated it does not believe that the Palestinian turn to the ICC warrants a cut in aid.

These strong responses from the Obama administration, of course, have only served to reaffirm the Israeli right’s contention that it is a wrong-headed government with a flawed leader. As a result, the Israeli leadership will continue to rely on Congress to protect them.

Israel’s ability to “turn on” Congress and its penchant for doing Israel’s bidding has shielded Israel’s leaders from introspection and self-criticism. The results are clear. Israel’s bad behaviour continues and its isolation from liberal opinion grows. And it is this negative dynamic that has created the very mindset that could write a self-serving book like Ally.

James Zogby is the president of the Arab American Institute

On Twitter:@aaiusa