Michael Oren attends a meeting in the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, June 27, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90
(JTA) — If a Palestinian appears to be committing a terror attack, do they deserve to die on the spot? The answer is yes, says Michael Oren. The former Israeli ambassador to the United States, now a deputy minister in Israel’s Cabinet, tweeted last week that the Israel Defense… Read more »
(JTA) — Michael Oren is my friend. During his nearly five years as Israel’s ambassador to the United States, we’d speak on an almost daily basis. Often those phone calls would come at 3 or 4 a.m., Washington time, and Michael, enduring another sleepless night, would share his fears… Read more »
Michael Oren, shown speaking at the Holocaust Day of Remembrance ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in 2010, caused a stir with accusations against President Obama in an Op-Ed. (Astrid Riecken/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – Israel’s former ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, caused a stir last week by publicly accusing President Barack Obama of abandoning the two core principles that undergird the U.S.-Israel relationship: no public disagreements and no surprises. But should there be no public disagreements – “no daylight,” in diplomatic… Read more »
Michael Oren, a former diplomat and noted historian, may be the only American-born member of the next Israeli parliament. (Gideon Markowicz/FLASH90) TEL AVIV (JTA) — Michael Oren, New York-born and educated at Columbia and Princeton, begins an interview in Hebrew. Though he quickly switches to English, Oren interrupts himself every so often to translate a word into Hebrew for his assistant. It’s a bilingual bridge he has spanned in one… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The best move for the Obama administration on the Middle East peace front may be to take a few steps back. That’s what some observers are advising in the wake of the collapse of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. The Palestinian unity talks mean that President Obama and U.S.… Read more »
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas meets with journalists in Ramallah on April 22, 2014, a day before his Fatah faction signed a reconciliation agreement with the militant group Hamas. (Palestinian Press Office via Getty Images) JERUSALEM (JTA) — Nine months of negotiations were supposed to propel Israelis and Palestinians into a future of peace. Instead, the collapse of talks is threatening to make the future look much like the past. Israel’s decision last week to suspend negotiations — a day after the signing of… Read more »
President Obama talks on the phone with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas aboard Air Force One, July 9, 2010. (Pete Souza/White House). WASHINGTON (JTA) — Is history about to repeat itself? President Obama’s first three years in office saw some serious tussling with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the peace process and settlements. Now, with Obama beginning his second term and Netanyahu looking pretty certain to win next month’s Israeli… Read more »
Among the ads in Israel's recently canceled campaign to lure expats home was this spot that one critic described as "Netanyahu Government Suggests Israelis Avoid Marrying American Jews." NEW YORK (JTA) — A few different sparks led to last week’s flare-up over a two-month-old Israeli ad campaign to lure home expatriates in the United States. An ad suggesting that a child of Israelis living in America would mistake Chanukah for Christmas. The claim by an influential blogger… Read more »
A member of the Muslim Student Union disrupts a February 2010 speech by Michael Oren at the University of California, Irvine. (StandWithUs) (JTA) — The misdemeanor convictions of 10 California college students for disrupting a speech by Israel’s ambassador to the United States is already leading partisans of both sides on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to predict changes in the way the fight over the issue plays out on campus. “When you… Read more »
