Michael Oren had to renounce his US citizenship in 2009 to take his last job as Israeli ambassador to the U.S., but no matter– now he’s been named a commentator on CNN, the Jerusalem Post reported yesterday. I’m gobsmacked in Gotham:

Oren… has now joined CNN as an analyst and contributor. He appeared on air as an analyst three times in the last week and also penned an obituary on Ariel Sharon for the CNN website. This is not the first time Israeli ambassadors have made the jump from diplomat to network analyst, though it is believed to be the first time a former Israeli ambassador has signed a contract with CNN. Oren, who now lives in Tel Aviv, told The Jerusalem Post that he saw the position as an opportunity to give “balanced but insightful commentary on pressing Israeli and Middle East issues.”

Wikipedia says that Oren will join a team that includes Ari Fleischer and Lanny Davis, both flacks for the Jewish state. No Arab-Americans that I can see in the roster. And at the risk of being nativist, are there any other non-Americans on that list? I think not. Oh and watch CNN’s Paul Begala, flanked by Fleischer and Wolf Blitzer (formerly of AIPAC), bragging of the Democrats, “We are a party that is strongly pro-Israel.” (I don’t know where Hilary Rosen stands, but she’s a party operative who worked for Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who just attended the Sharon funeral, so odds are…).

I have to believe there’s a financial angle to the move. CNN’s competition Comcast is now the largest media company in the world. It’s headed by two pro-Israel executives, one of whose former political associates, the pro-Israel Ed Rendell, is on air all the time; and Chris Matthews can’t talk about the most important overseas political story, the Israel lobby angle to the efforts to kill the Iran deal. It just pays to be pro-Israel.

P.S. Maybe you saw, but last week, a clown Chinese billionaire who was trying to buy the Wall Street Journal and New York Times said, as if to prove his bona fides, “I am very good at working with Jews.” It’s a joke and it’s not a joke. What signal is CNN sending?

H/t William McGowan