Foxman raps ex-envoy for engaging in ‘conspiracy theories’ and ‘amateur psychoanalysis’ in series of op-eds on Israel-US relationship
BY AVI LEWIS, TOI
The Anti-Defamation League lashed into former Israeli ambassador to the US Michael Oren Sunday for a number of “unjustified and insensitive” essays he published in US media, one of which claimed that President Barack Obama’s foreign policy may have been unduly influenced by his early upbringing among adherents of the Muslim faith.
ADL Director Abraham Foxman called on the American-born Knesset member to retract his statements that “attack” the president and “veer into the realm of conspiracy theories.”
“In the days leading up to the forthcoming release of a memoir of his experiences as Israel’s Ambassador to the US, Michael Oren appears to be using the very legitimate and sharp policy disagreements between Israel and the US as an insensitive and unjustified attack on the president,” Foxman said in a statement.
“We hope that Ambassador Oren will walk back these unjustified attacks,” he said.
Ahead of the release of “Ally,” on the Israel-US relationship, Oren penned three opinion pieces that received mixed reactions from US political figures and the Jewish community: “How Obama abandoned Israel” in Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal; followed by “Why Obama is wrong about Iran being ‘rational’ on nukes,” in the Los Angeles Times; and on Friday, in Foreign Policy Magazine, “How Obama Opened His Heart to the ‘Muslim World.”
In the Foreign Policy piece, Oren blasted Obama’s “naive” approach to Islam, and speculated that his outreach to the Muslim world may stem from the fact that he was abandoned by his Muslim father and therefore seeks acceptance from his co-religionists.
Foxman took issue especially with the Foreign Policy piece, which he termed “borderline stereotyping.”
“Ambassador Oren revives the meme of the president’s ‘Muslim heritage’ to make the case that American foreign policy in the Middle East is primarily being promoted and dictated by the president’s early upbringing in the Muslim faith and in Muslim traditions,” Foxman said,
Oren’s essay, he continued, “veers into the realm of conspiracy theories, and with an element of amateur psychoanalysis he links US policies in the Middle East to the president’s personal history of having a Muslim father. Then, taking it a step further by suggesting this ‘worldview’ of Muslims and Islam has driven the president to embrace the Muslim world at the expense of both Israel and US national security interests. This results in borderline stereotyping and insensitivity.”
Oren was in New York Sunday night to launch the PR tour for his book, which he said he had released with the aim of enlisting American Jews to fight the emerging nuclear deal with Iran at a “critical moment” reminiscent of the lead-up to the Holocaust.
The book is “about saying no” to a nuclear deal that “everybody in the Knesset agrees is emphatically bad,” Oren noted during the event at the 92nd Street Y, adding that “Israel is at a fateful juncture” and that American Jews have the opportunity to “intercede and perhaps save millions of Jews,” Haaretz reported.
Oren reiterated that he believes “Obama is not anti-Israel” but that he has engaged in a major policy shift vis-a-vis Israel.
He also intimated that the American Jews in the Obama administration “have a hard time understanding the Israeli character.”
“There were discussions in the White House in which there were six Jews – 3 Americans and 3 Israelis, discussing a Palestinian state – and the only non-Jewish person in the room was the president or the vice president,” Oren said, adding that non-Orthodox and the intermarried American Jews don’t fully grasp Israel’s position.
@ honeybee:
Pobrecito… 🙂 We will allow him to lick the grill…
About mesquite, the local one, they government is not giving harvest permits… In Texas is the opposite.
SO only imported and that in chips only. Grrrrrr
SHmuel HaLevi 2 Said:
We won’t invite him to the BBQ !!!!!!!!!!
After extensive review of Ambassador’s Oren latest revelations and book, I concluded that Oren’s motives seem quite correct even if I still totally disagree with his political views.
Name enemies and act against them in any way likely to eliminate them. He has idnetified a virulent cadre and his job is done.
Now those with the delegation and power to perform corrective actions must act against enemies. Islamic murderous, raping, enslaving hordes ans states on that line and all that in any way associate, support or condone them.
SHmuel HaLevi 2 Said:
Te Bueno !!!!!!!!!!!
Done it using my usual Gaucho style.
@ honeybee:
I ordered cut, dry woods from a nearby supplier.
Olive, mezquite, hickory, oak, cherry, lemon, apple, maple… There is a wood stockyard at a village some 10 miles from here. Otherwise, we are about ready.
Remarkably, it has been found that on the road to Tiberia, on the slopes facing the Golan, there are large patches of a local type of mezquite bushes.
They are protected except for certified facilities that are allowed to harvest some of that.
@ babushka: Well said! Others can comment directly to Foxman by visiting adl.org and leaving a comment.
@ SHmuel HaLevi 2:
Como esta !!!!! How the BBQ coming.
babushka Said:
This is so true !!!!!!! Nice to learn I am not the only one rejoicing at Foxman’s departure.
Thanks for sending this one out, Ted. I have been in great need of a good laugh lately. This worked wonders. It always cheers me up to read how stupid other people can be. But Foxman might yet be useful if we ever need to know which cattle car we should climb into.
@ babushka:
BB:
As always, you hit the nail truly on its head. Now you know why and how I grew to old age distrusting that gang of semi-Jews.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Forman reinforces the “capo” designation when he fails to dispute the specifics in the writings of this historian, sitting in his armchair.
The Anti-Defamation League exists to herd Jews into the Democrat Party, and does an effective job of it. Where the ADL fails miserably is at being Jewish. When it comes to protecting Israel, Foxman is always morally absent without leave. The Southern Baptists care more about the survival of the Jewish people than does the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, which spends its time slavishly promoting the leftist agenda…an agenda that is profoundly anti-Semitic.
Michael Oren actually went through many experiences with Obama and his crowd, and drew intelligent conclusions through them.
Foxman’s experience is that of sitting at his desk and thinking too much.
Wow! We now know the mutated name from “rav” Steven Wise. The renegade creature is named now Foxman. Capos will be capos.