Ripple Effect

Though the book Ally, written by present Knesset member and former Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Oren, has been read only by those privileged to receive advance copies, its effect has been immediate. Pre-publication, Ally is like a large unseen rock thrown into the water: You know the rock was big because the ripples are large and numerous.

A historian by training, Oren is already a best-selling author for books on the Six-Day War and U.S. involvement in the Middle East, and his book promotion is going great. Whenever the roiling waters begin to still, Oren releases another op-ed to a leading publication (three in the last week) or does an interview (countless), reinvigorating the surface tremors. His op-eds — “How Obama Abandoned Israel,” “Why Obama is Wrong About Iran Being ‘Rational’ on Nukes,” and “How Obama Opened His Heart to the ‘Muslim World’” — tackle three different foci of this “fateful period” of U.S.-Israel relations and should be considered together. It is with these op-eds that Oren presents a composite of the Obama-Israel dynamic, though perhaps out of sequence.

Obama’s “opening of his heart” to the Muslim world in his [in]famous Cairo speech entreaty (June 2009) was the first manifestation of Obama’s desire “to create daylight” between America and Israel, the first of many steps in his “abandonment of Israel,” culminating in his misguided negotiations with Iran in complete disregard of Israel’s warnings and interests. The consequence of this arc of action is that aspects of the U.S.-Israel relationship are “in tatters.” Though Oren believes there is blame enough to go around and does assign blame to Netanyahu and others on Israel’s side, he is clear to lay the lion’s share at Obama’s feet.

Oren is expert in “Obama.” In preparation for his role as Israel’s ambassador to America, he viewed understanding Obama’s worldview as crucial, devoting months to studying the president. He did so by “poring over his [Obama’s] speeches, interviews, press releases, and memoirs, and meeting with many of his friends and supporters. The purpose of this self-taught course — Obama 101, I called it — was to get to the point where the president could no longer surprise me.”

And Obama, unfortunately, has done little to surprise Oren. His scholarship of Obama led the historian, self-admittedly not a psychologist, “at the risk of armchair psychoanalyzing,” to offer a fascinating window into Obama’s psyche. Oren hypothesizes that Obama’s policy on the Muslim world is a consequence of the president being fathered and abandoned by a Muslim while raised by a Christian mother. Obama considers himself a natural bridge between the two religious cultures, motivated by a pursuit of paternal approval to explain his father’s faith to his mother’s culture. This doomed pursuit will lead historians to view Obama’s policy toward Islam with “a combination of curiosity and incredulousness,” criticizing the president “for being naïve and detached from a complex and increasingly lethal reality.”

Predictably, the Obama administration responded angrily to Oren’s criticism of the president, calling it “absolutely false.” So aggressive has the U.S. been in denouncing Ally that U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro impugned Oren, saying he was motivated by a desire to sell books. Shapiro has reportedly put pressure on Prime Minister Netanyahu to denounce the book and, to his credit, Netanyahu has refused. Shapiro, working through his rolodex, then contacted Moshe Kahlon, leader of Kulanu, the party Oren represents in Knesset, demanding an apology. All Kahlon offered the U.S. ambassador was a tepid distancing, saying Oren’s views did not reflect the party line of Kulanu and, more significantly, included in his letter Oren’s reiterating that he refused to retract his claims.

America’s consternation regarding this book is telling, giving greater credibility to the bulk of Oren’s claims. As Shakespeare said, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks,” and America is protesting way too much about a memoir by a former diplomat and a rookie Israeli politician. It stinks of hypocrisy that the U.S., whose State Department anonymously attacked Netanyahu ad hominem in the most vulgar and profane manner, attacks Oren for his well-documented claims and for impressions and opinions which, though unverifiable as fact, are credible as theory. Perhaps Obama’s assault on the Constitution now includes the First Amendment and Freedom of the Press.

I am not a big political fan of Oren’s; his politics fall discernibly to the left of mine. But he has my respect. He is a renowned scholar, he is articulate and interesting, and was a volunteer in the IDF Paratroops, a top combat unit. He has served Israel well and honorably. He has followed his convictions politically, disregarding Netanyahu and Likud to join a rival party, Kulanu. All excerpts from his book and interviews show a balanced approach to America and Israel, neither withholding praise nor criticism. When Netanyahu had a chance to bash Ally, thereby dismissing the criticism he suffers on its pages, he did not, which I take as a sign of respect for Oren’s integrity.

Though Oren may have another bestseller with Ally, the fundamental question is not whether Ally is good for Oren the author, but, to use the classic question, “Is it good for the Jews?” With each new media bite, Oren resumes the conversation on what he describes as his “cri de coeur [an impassioned outcry; entreaty; protest] … for an alliance [U.S.-Israel] that should be in a much better place than it is.” He is challenging America and Israel to improve its relationship by shining a light on areas which need work.

Hopefully this book will awaken the Jewish world in America to the fact that the president is no fan of Israel, and in Israel to the truth that ultimately — politically and militarily — as in all matters, we have only Hashem to depend upon. Oren has been brave enough to say and document what we have long known but many have been afraid to say: “The emperor — Obama — has no clothes.”

Meir Solomon is a writer, analyst, and commentator living in Alon Shvut, Israel, with his amazing wife and two wonderful children. He can be contacted at msolomon@hamodia.com.

This article appeared in print in the June 24th, 2015 edition of Hamodia.