The appointment of Michael Oren as Israel’s next ambassador to the United States can only help relations between the Obama administration and that of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
An award-winning historian and best-selling author, Oren is a supporter of the two-state solution, which we believe to be the only viable pathway to peace.
Not only does the American-born Oren understand this country in ways foreign-born ambassadors never could, he also has the benefit of solid relations with many segments of American society: government, business, media and academia.
These connections will serve him well as he labors on behalf of Israel’s interests. With Netanyahu already clashing with the more left-leaning Obama administration, Israel needs a strong leader here, someone who understands diplomatic nuances and American political realities.
Oren certainly has the intellectual heft to get the job done.
He literally wrote the book on Israel’s decisive war of survival, “Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East.” After making aliyah in 1979, he served as an Israeli paratrooper, and he continues to study and write about the Israeli military.
Oren is a conservative. He holds a senior fellowship at the right-wing Shalem Center in Jerusalem, and he is on record as standing firmly against any Western rapprochement with Iran, as long as the Tehran regime develops nuclear weapons and threatens Israel’s existence.
Yet he has also demonstrated independent thinking. For example, earlier this year he argued for Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank as a necessary step toward peace.
So far, any real peace remains frustratingly distant. Right now, it appears the dialogue is back to square one in some ways, with the United States pressing Netanyahu to commit to that two-state solution, something that should have been set in stone years ago.
And, as some predicted, it does appear the United States is taking a tougher tone with Israel lately, certainly compared with the Bush years.
It’s too early to tell if this new ratio of carrots to sticks will change the course of Middle East peace or bilateral relations. But with increased American pressure on all sides, and with first-rate intellects like Michael Oren in key posts making the case for the Jewish state, we hope Israel will finally put its Palestinian problem behind it.
It may seem like too much to hope for, but that is the nature of hope.