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Former MK Michael Oren: Delegation is part of Democrats fight for the "soul of the party.” The 41 US House Democrats who arrived in Israel on Monday on a trip sponsored by an AIPAC affiliated charity are doing more than “just” showing mainstream Democratic support for Israel, they are wresting control of the party from the high-profile Progressive wing trying to hijack it. A part of this wing – embodied by congresswomen Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Alexandira Ocasio-Cortez – despises Israel and AIPAC with a venom that sometimes crosses the line into antisemitism. And two organizations identified with this...

The 9/11 terrorists could have cared less about America’s gun-free zones, former Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren suggested during his conversation with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday morning. The two weighed in on Sunday’s Orlando tragedy, as well as lawmakers’ predictable call for gun control. In his remarks, Oren did accede some points to the gun control lobby, arguing that in Israel few citizens own guns and yet they’ve managed to fight terror for years. Yet, he quickly noted that if a terrorist has plans to murder someone, gun laws are not going to stop him or her. September...

TEL AVIV – The Orlando attack, in which first generation U.S. citizen Omar Sadiqqui Mateen shot at least 50 people in a gay club, will help Donald Trump’s chances of becoming president, Israel’s former ambassador to the U.S. said.

‘Given that it is becoming clear that the motive is Islamist-jihadist,’ says Michael Oren, ‘this will greatly strengthen’ GOP candidate The mass killing at a gay nightclub in Florida by Omar Mateen, 30, a US citizen born to Afghan parents, will benefit GOP candidate Donald Trump in the run-up to the presidential elections, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States said. “If the motive for this mass killing had been hatred for the LGBT community, this would have played to Hillary Clinton’s benefit,” said Michael Oren, who is now a member of Knesset from the center-right Kulanu party....

I’ve been writing about this for a while. It’s good to see it being said openly. Especially now that Obama tried to fake yet another diplomatic crisis because of another manufactured Israeli “insult”. […]As an example of such a crisis, (Michael) Oren cites the infamous diplomatic dustup during Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel in March 2010, calling it a “fabricated crisis” intentionally created by the Obama administration regarding a routine approval announcement for construction inside an established neighborhood in Jerusalem.Obama manufactures these crises, these “insults” by Israel to make him seem like the victim so that when he...

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...

Oren served as ambassador to the US during the during the first four and a half years of Obama's presidency. He wrote the book Ally about the experience, which has just been published in Hebrew. s controversial interview last week in which he repeatedly criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proves that he has "selective memory" about the Israel-related events of his presidency, Kulanu MK Michael Oren said Sunday. Oren served as ambassador to the US during the first four and a half years of Obama's presidency. He wrote the book Ally about the experience, which has just been published in...

The best line President Obama delivered in his 2015 State of the Union Address was not one written for him by his speechwriters. When he said he would not be on the ballot again, Republicans who had just taken over both Houses of Congress stood and applauded. Good naturedly, but with a bit of sarcasm, Mr. Obama reminded his opponents that he won both times he was on the national ballot. He was the first Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt to achieve back-to-back election victories. We need to acknowledge that he is a formidable political actor. He has defied the...

Former ambassador to the US Michael Oren, whose book on his experience in Washington is due out on Tuesday, continues to ruffle feathers by criticizing US President Barack Obama’s Mideast policies in op-ed pieces in the US press. In a piece Friday in Foreign Policy, Oren – who left Washington on October 1, 2013, and is now a Kulanu MK -- charged that Obama was naïve as a peacemaker, had blinders to terrorism, and that his abandonment by both his Muslim father and step-father had something to do with his desire to be accepted by their “co-religionists.” And in a...

On Nov. 8, 2011, President Obama met with then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Cannes after what had been a particularly rough week for US-Israeli relations. Modal Trigger The week prior, the UN agency UNESCO admitted Palestine as a member state. Congress responded by cutting off UNESCO’s funding, a move the Obama administration direly opposed. Michael Oren, who served as Israel’s US ambassador from 2009 to 2013, said the president, having opposed Palestine’s admission to the agency, “thought he had done enough . . . and did not need to punish them further.” President Obama responded to Congress’ act by admonishing Israel for...

US. Ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro phoned Prime Minister Netanyahu and asked him to issue a statement disavowing former Israeli Ambassador to Israel Michael Oren’s statements about President Obama. In MK Michael Oren’s new book, he accuses Obama of abandoning the two main principle of US-Israel relations: no public disagreements (“no daylight”) and no suprises in major policy changes. He also primarily lays the blame on Obama for the bad relationship with Israel. He says that while Netanyahu made mistakes, Obama purposely damaged US-Israel relations. The US State Department says Oren’s statements are, “absolutely inaccurate and false.” According to reports,...

A Knesset Channel poll published Thursday indicates that almost one half of the Israeli public agrees with MK Michael Oren (Kulanu), the former Israeli ambassador in the US, who said this week that US President Barack Obama has “deliberately” caused a deterioration in US-Israel ties. […] “From the moment he entered office, Mr. Obama promoted an agenda of championing the Palestinian cause and achieving a nuclear accord with Iran,” wrote Oren. Obama abandoned the two core principles of Israel’s alliance with America, he accused. …

US President Barack Obama’s radical worldview makes it impossible for him to empathize with Israel’s position, Israel’s former Ambassador to Washington said Monday. Former US envoy Michael Oren, who currently serves as a Member of Knesset for the Kulanu party, was speaking at the Yesha Conference in Jerusalem’s Lianardo Hotel, where community leaders and prominent activists from Judea and Samaria (Yesha) were gathered. Speaking in front of a staunchly nationalist audience, the centrist MK warned that the current American administration was gambling with Israel’s future—particularly vis-à-vis Iran. […] Oren’s upcoming book—Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide, set for release...

Obama is going to find it impossible to impose his land swap proposals – if Oren has any say. Michael Oren – one of seven members of the recently formed Kulanu party elected to Israel’s new Parliament – seems destined to play a pivotal role in torpedoing President Obama’s proposals for a two-state solution aimed at resolving the 100 years old Arab-Jewish conflict. Agreement has reportedly been reached between Israel’s Prime Minister elect Benjamin Netanyahu and Kulanu chairman Moshe Kahlon for Kahlon to be appointed Finance Minister. Fellow Kulanu members - Yoav Galant and Eli Alalouf - will serve respectively...

The efficacy and threat level of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel has heightened after Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, Former Israeli Ambassador to the US Dr. Michael Oren stated Monday—and allegedly justifies a withdrawal from Judea and Samaria. Israel’s economic, political, and cultural status has already been damaged existentially across the globe, Oren warned, due to the constant campaigns for “Israel Apartheid Week” on college campuses and European divestment from the Jewish state. […] Hamas consciously declared victory in its PR campaign against Israel several weeks ago, after it encouraged ordinary Gazans to become human shields,...

Israel's ambassador to the United States warned Sunday that any evidence of chemical weapons being passed from the Assad regime to extremist groups like Hezbollah would be a "game-changer," and said that would be a "red line" for Israel. The remark comes amid claims that the Syrian regime is mixing and moving the components for the deadly sarin nerve gas. Ambassador Michael Oren said he could not confirm those reports but made clear that Israel is watching the situation "very carefully." "Were those weapons to pass into the wrong hands -- Hezbollah's hands for example -- that would be a...

MSNBC’s Mara Schiavocampo began her interview of Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren straightforwardly enough, asking “What would be the trigger for a ground operation? What’s the red line here?” Oren answered, “You have the equivalent of what would be about 170 million Americans under bomb shelters. If Hamas continues to escalate we will take the necessary and legitimate measures to defend our citizens.” Schiavocampo’s second question might be considered more controversial.She asked: “Living under the threat of rocket attack is certainly a psychological trauma. But what would you say to those who argue that the rockets are essentially very ineffective, they...

(Watch video at link, the title said it all) Exchange between MSNBC’s Mara Schiavocampo and Michael Oren, Israel's ambassador to the U.S.

The Israeli ambassador to America, Michael Oren, has released a statement rebuking the chair of the Democratic National Party. Earlier today, Phil Klein reported: Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz claimed on Monday that Israel’s ambassador to the United States has accused Republicans of being “dangerous” to Israel by criticizing President Obama’s record. The Florida congresswoman made the charge at a training session for Jewish Democrats held by the Obama campaign here at the Democratic National Convention, aimed at teaching Jewish Democrats how to convince their fellow Jews to vote for Obama. Much of the session, which featured a...

   Ambassador Oren Remarks to Mark July 4th, U.S. Independence Day  Friday, 01 July 2011 14:26    July 4th is, of course, a special day for Americans, and we Israelis celebrate it as well. We celebrate with you because America’s independence is essential to Israel’s independence. Your love of liberty is the same as ours and our reverence for democracy is identical. We rejoice because your Founding Fathers were inspired by our Founding Fathers.Back in 1776, American patriots compared King George III to the ancient Pharaoh who enslaved the Jews. George Washington, in their minds, was Moses and John Adams...