Ex-ambassador: Obama 'Fabricated' Diplomatic Crises with Israel

Last year, Kulanu MK and former Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren received heavy criticism in some circles for his book Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide.

With the release of the book’s Hebrew edition, Oren spoke to Arutz Sheva, discussing in depth the tensions between Israel and the Obama administration and the push back he received for the English edition.

The book, which created controversy for what some considered an unfair portrayal of President Barack Obama, elicited rare public condemnations from senior officials, including former US special envoy to the Middle Easy Martin Indyk.

“When I wrote [the English edition], Martin Indyk attacked me,” Oren told Arutz Sheva.

“People got angry at me. I can say that Obama did this because he thought that if these policies were adopted, then the Arabs would come to the table. But the results were the exact opposite – it actually pushed the Arabs further away. That’s because in the Middle East if someone gets concessions without paying a price, then why pay for it afterwards? [After] all of the concessions the Arabs got right from the start from Obama they spit at him in the face.”

“Only now, after interviews with former senior American officials like Dennis Ross, and after interviews with Obama, it’s become clear that what I wrote was correct."

Oren goes so far as to claim that Obama and his administration intentionally worked to create distance between the historic allies.

“Obama chose to create the crises [between Israel and the US],” said Oren.

“There were differences of opinion with America, as there have been for years. The disagreement regarding Jerusalem has been around since 1948, the disagreement over the settlements since 1967. The thing is he chose to deal with these disagreements publicly. He chose to put diplomatic distance between the US and Israel.”

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