Michael Oren’s ‘Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide’ Called an Anti-Obama Polemic
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Michael Oren’s new book, “Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide, ” is getting mixed reviews. The book is about his time serving as Israel’s ambassador to the United States. Many are seeing its description of President Obama’s positions on the Arab-Israeli conflict as an anti-Obama polemic.
The current member of Israel’s Knesset from the new Kulanu Party recently caused a diplomatic row with an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal in which he accused President Obama of not supporting Israel. The piece was said to be a preview of the actual book and now people are reacting to the finished product.
Financial Times clearly does not like the book calling it “the diplomatic equivalent of a kiss-and-tell memoir.”
The publication said, that the, “book is permeated with disdain for the policies of Barack Obama, tempered with occasional praise for the serving US president, including his apparently unfeigned fondness for Israel. It quotes many private discussions with members of his administration, expletives and all.”
The Wall Street Journal describes the book as an effort by a man who is moving from diplomacy to politics. “Ally is correctly read as a statement of intent from someone moving from diplomacy into politics; the author is, as an ambassador might say, presenting his credentials, ” it writes.
But Mr. Oren has always been a political animal. He was previously affiliated with the conservative Jerusalem based think tank “The Shalem Center, ” before he became Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. And he was appointed by the right wing Prime Primister of Israel, Binyamin Netanyahu.
While Oren’s book on the Six Day War was highly praised, that was written as more of an objective work of history. His new work cannot possibly be objective as it deals with his own personal experiences. It is also not surprising that Oren is highly critical of President Obama’s Israel policies. Everyone on the right side of the country’s political divide considers any American politician who seems to agree with the half of Israelis who sit on its left to be guilty of an ant-Israel bias.
But the Journal also pointed out some good aspects of the book, such as anecdotes about Mr. Oren’s years as an ambassador. “There is much that is interesting here about Mr. Oren’s years in Washington, and many tidbits of inside information that will satisfy those who have followed the deterioration of American-Israeli ties since Messrs. Obama and Netanyahu took office six years ago, ” it says.
“We hear about Mr. Oren’s frantic attempts to put out diplomatic fires as two leaders who don’t like each other pursue divergent policies, feud, make up, fall out again, undo years of trust and surprise each other with policy announcements like new West Bank construction (Israel) or the public endorsement of a key Palestinian negotiating demand (America).”
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I had been reading Ally, when I came to this paragraph, page 276, and I said to myself – this is it, this is why he wrote the book:
“Finally, after many months of attentiveness, I reached my conclusion. In the absence of a high-profile provocation – an attack on a U.S. aircraft carrier, for example – the United States would not use force against Iran. Rather, the administration would remain committed to diplomatically resolving the Iranian nuclear issue, even at the risk of reaching a deal unacceptable to Israel. And If Israel took matters into its own hands, the White House would keep its distance and offer to defend Israel only if it were counterstruck by a hundred thousand Hezbollah missiles.”
Oren sensed that he could make a difference and warn of the disastrous consequences of Obama’s appeasement of Iran and that the time to do that is NOW. And he did it. This book and his three Op-Eds in the WSJ, LA Times and Foreign Policy accomplished more than all the effort of all the Israeli columnists and politicians combined, apart from Netanyahu’s speech in front of the joint meeting of Congress. But paradoxically, that was the move Oren opposed and even after reading the book I still do not understand his motives for opposing Netanyahu’s speech. After all, the only way to stop President Barack Obama’s insane Iran deal was to warn Congress.
It is interesting that Michael Oren managed to do what Bret Stephens, Martin Sherman, Ari Shavit and other Israeli and American analysis never did – quote Bernard Lewis on MAD and Iran! Why is the world ignoring the opinion on Iran and MAD by a leading western scholar of Islam is still a mystery.
The chasm between the US and Israeli analysts, between the Obama administration and the Netanyahu government, between American Jews and Israelis in analyzing the Arab Spring, Palestinian peace negotiations and most importantly of all, Iran, is alarming and is described in detail. It is a frustrating political roller coaster drive.
I do not believe that there was ever a book which is more relevant to the political situation of the time and one which has a better potential to make a dent. The only comparison I can think of is Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Heretic, Matthew Kroenig’s A Time to Attack and the warnings Winston Churchill gave in the Commons in the 1930s during his wilderness years, but they were ignored. Hopefully, Oren’s will not. Will Churchill’s “confirmed unteachability of mankind” remain true?