President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2010. PHOTO: JASON REED/REUTERS
In an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, former Israeli Ambassador Micheal Oren claimed President Obama “deliberately” damaged U.S.-Israeli relations. Though Oren admits that neither of the parties had a “monopoly” on mistakes that contributed to the well-known tension between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “only one leader made them deliberately.”
The former Israeli Ambassador noted that the issue of Jewish settlements, an oft-cited argument by the Obama administration to justify their hostility toward the prime minister, was one of “many bungles” that “were not committed by Mr. Netanyahu personally.” However, he did apologize for taking Vice President Joe Biden off guard on the issue of settlements, and admits only to premeditating the otherwise well-received speech in front of a joint session of Congress last March.
The same, however, cannot be said of Mr. Obama.
“Mr. Netanyahu’s only premeditated misstep was his speech to Congress, which I recommended against. Even that decision, though, came in reaction to a calculated mistake by President Obama,” Oren wrote. “From the moment he entered office, Mr. Obama promoted an agenda of championing the Palestinian cause and achieving a nuclear accord with Iran. Such policies would have put him at odds with any Israeli leader. But Mr. Obama posed an even more fundamental challenge by abandoning the two core principles of Israel’s alliance with America.”
The two principles Mr. Oren referred to in the op-ed were 1) the understanding between the two countries that “no daylight” exists between them on the key issues and 2) that there are to be “no surprises” on policy shifts toward those issues.
On the former, the cardinal rule broken by the Obama administration was their public scrutiny of Israel on a host of issues. Of course, two countries can and often do disagree; just not publicly. This break from long-standing policy between the two allies was unprovoked, and obvious from the beginning.
“When there is no daylight,” Obama told American Jewish leaders in 2009 at the onset of his administration. “Israel just sits on the sidelines and that erodes our credibility with the Arabs.”
Regarding the latter, “President Obama discarded it in his first meeting with Mr. Netanyahu, in May 2009, by abruptly demanding a settlement freeze and Israeli acceptance of the two-state solution,” Oren argued.
During the very next month following that meeting, Obama traveled to the Middle East but snubbed Israel before addressing the Muslim world from Cairo in his now infamous “apology tour.”
“Israeli leaders typically received advance copies of major American policy statements on the Middle East and could submit their comments,” Oren adds. “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.”
Most recently, Israelis rejected attempts by the president and foreign left-wing activists to oust Prime Minister Netanyahu and replace him with a far more left-wing leader Obama felt he could better deal with. A bipartisan Senate committee has been established to investigate the Obama administration’s use of several taxpayer-funded State Department grants to support OneVoice, a U.S.-based leftist activist organization started by five Democrats.
OneVoice received two taxpayer-funded grants from the U.S. State Department in the past year totaling $200,000 and, as PPD previously reported, joined forces with the group V15 – who had a reputed mission of “anyone but Bibi” – to defeat Netanyahu. V15 is run by Jeremy Bird, known for his role as Obama’s 2012 field director.
But the past is the past, and Oren says his intention in the op-ed was to move forward and “restore the ‘no daylight’ and ‘no surprises’ principles.”
“Israel has no alternative to America as a source of security aid, diplomatic backing and overwhelming popular support,” he added. “The U.S. has no substitute for the state that, though small, remains democratic, militarily and technologically robust, strategically located and unreservedly pro-American.”
According to the latest polls, Americans’ views of Israel are at record-highs, despite Obama’s efforts to undermine Netanyahu’s government. A whopping 70 percent of Americans say they now view the country favorably. Comparatively, just 17 percent currently view the Palestinian Authority favorably, down from 19 in 2014.
“The past six years have seen successive crises in U.S.-Israeli relations, and there is a need to set the record straight,” he wrote. “But the greater need is to ensure a future of minimal mistakes and prevent further erosion of our vital alliance.”
