Michael Oren tears into Obama’s Israel policy

Kulanu MK and former ambassador to the US Michael Oren pens a scathing attack of US President Barack Obama’s policies toward Israel, claiming both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Obama made “mistakes,” but “only one leader made them deliberately.”

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Oren, who served as Israel’s ambassador during Obama’s first term in office, recounts various gaffes committed by the Israeli government, including announcing expansion of settlements on the eve of visits by top US officials, the (in)famous lengthy “lecture” by Netanyahu during a photo op with Obama at the Oval Office, and the prime minister’s speech to Congress earlier this year.

Oren absolves Netanyahu of some of the incidents, citing the fact that the missteps were taken by midlevel staffers without the prime minister’s knowledge (e.g., two instances where settlement expansion was announced just as Vice President Joe Biden was scheduled to arrive in Israel). Netanyahu apologized personally, Oren notes.

Obama, on the other hand, deliberately deviated from several long-held traditions in the US-Israel relationship, airing disagreements in the media, and pointedly skipping Israel on his first Middle East tour after being elected. Another principle Oren says Obama did not follow is “no surprises” – i.e., refraining from public announcements of US expectations of Jerusalem until the issues had first been ironed out away from the cameras and microphones.

According to Oren,

Israeli leaders typically received advance copies of major American policy statements on the Middle East and could submit their comments. But Mr. Obama delivered his Cairo speech, with its unprecedented support for the Palestinians and its recognition of Iran’s right to nuclear power, without consulting Israel.

Oren’s account leads up to what he sees as the potentially most harmful consequence of the rift in US-Israeli relations – the negotiations conducted behind Israel’s back with its “deadliest enemy” – Iran. As a US ally in the region, Israel, “though small, remains democratic, militarily and technologically robust, strategically located and unreservedly pro-American.”

He ends his piece by warning against further “erosion” of the “vital alliance” between the US and Israel.