Former Israeli Ambassador to the US Dr. Michael Oren may choose his words carefully, but he does not mince words either when it comes to expressing his views on US-Israeli issues.
Oren told JewishPress.com in an exclusive interview this week that he believes the US is “smart enough to know the peace process is a bottomless pit in terms of diplomacy.”
The statement came in response to a question about how the new Israeli government would be able to resist a push from America over the “two-state solution.”
The former diplomat, a respected author in his own right, said he believes the United States has “other issues that are far more pressing, [such as] China, and Russia. Earlier administrations neglected these issues,” Oren explained.
However, he said, Israelis living in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley “will try to change the status quo.”
Former US President Barack Obama – with whom incumbent President Joe Biden served two terms as vice president – “would have stopped an international tour to come out and condemn that,” Oren said. “Biden is not going to do that,” he added.
It’s All About Iran
The biggest issue facing Israel vis a vis the United States, he said, is not really the issue of the two-state solution. It is Iran.
“We have a fundamental disagreement on Iran,” Oren told JewishPress.com. The United States wants to renew the JCPOA,” the nuclear deal signed by Tehran with world powers in 2015. “But we (the State of Israel) view it as – I view it as leading to a regional war that will make the recent conflicts seem like a walk in the park.
“I see their position,” the former ambassador said. “I think that they don’t want to use a military option.
“The American people do not want another war,” he explained. “They don’t want a military operation. They see it as, ‘We’re better off doing this (ed: renewing the JCPOA) to make them delay the nuclear program, kicking the can down the road.”
But Oren said that’s not really a good option. “I have no doubt about the danger of the JCPOA. It’s not rocket science,” he added bluntly.
‘Not About What We Do. It’s About Who We Are’
American society is in flux, Oren said, with societal upheavals leading to major changes, not all of them good for Israel or for American Jews.
“There are major currents coursing through American society: intersectionality, woke-ism, critical race theory and similar issues, which have nothing to do with Israel or with Jews.
“We didn’t start these issues, but we are among their primary targets – and it’s unclear whether we [ed: the State of Israel) can do anything to change that.
“We can make a two-state solution tomorrow and I don’t know if it will have any impact at all on the subscribers to these notions, because it’s not about what we do, but who we are.
‘It’s All About Emotion, Not Facts’
“We have always fought the public diplomacy war, which is about the facts, but now facts are irrelevant. It’s about feelings,” Oren said.
When it comes to pitting facts against feelings, he noted, feelings usually win, even when it is an obvious issue like antisemitism.
“The Palestinians have five words they use to describe feelings — apartheid, colonialism, racism, oppression and now, even genocide – when describing Israel. All these words evoke very powerful emotions but none of them have any fact.
“It’s all about emotion.”
Israel, however, focuses on fact, he said. “What five words do we have? We have hundreds of words: ‘we extended our hand in peace, they rejected our hand in peace.’
“We don’t have a simple five words. It’s a complex situation. We have always said it’s complex. But the world is not about complexity now – it’s about the simple answer.
“From the river to the sea. Students are in favor of human life. And others. All these easy slogans get chanted by students who are fed these lines, and they might not even know what they mean,” he said.
The rise in antisemitic incidents is more of the same, Oren added, even as regards the impact of the new extremist, antisemitic radical left wing of the Democratic party on America’s relationship with Israel.
“We have challenges today, and they are getting bigger – not smaller” diplomatically as well as in the security arena, he said.
Era When Israel Was ‘The Good Guys’
The former diplomat also took aim at the issue of antisemitism in America in his latest book, the novel “To All Who Call in Truth,” which he said is set in 1972, “the last moment in which the American Jews were a distinct ethnic group.
“We are not a distinct ethnicity anymore. Back then, only Jews ate bagels. We had American Jewish literature, with authors who asked the same question: ‘How can I be both a Jew and American?’ They saw a contradiction there.
“I wanted to bring my readers back to that world,” he explained. “Eli Wiesel, Shlomo Carlebach, Meir Kahana all appear in cameo in the book. It was the era when Israel was “the good guys.”
But antisemitism was present as well, he noted, adding, “there is a lot of antisemitism in this book.”
When American Jews ‘Woke Up’ to Antisemitism
The author said his fear initially was that American Jews could not relate to that era, of Israel being “the good guys.”
But he had no fears that American Jews would not be able to relate to the antisemitism he described.
“American Jews can fully relate to the antisemitism in my book,” he said, adding that there was a change, a pivotal point in which American Jews ‘woke up.’
“Surely, the turning point was the massacre at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, and the rise of the antisemitic radical left,” he commented.
‘Our Role to Reach Out, But Explaining Has a Limit’
So, is Israel’s positive bipartisan relationship with the US Congress in jeopardy? Well . . . it might be.
“I opposed [former Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s 2015 speech to Congress on the grounds that it weakened bipartisan support for Israel, and Democratic opposition to the Iran nuclear deal.
“Subsequently I felt that Netanyahu could have reached out more actively to Democrats and preserve our support in their party’s mainstream.
Today, “we have to establish bipartisanship to the greatest degree possible, but understanding there are forces there beyond our control,” he added. “That’s my basic message.
“It’s our role to reach out and explain the best we can; but explaining has a limit.”