MICHAEL B. OREN: WARMONGERING ZIONIST, NEOCON LACKEY – AND ISRAEL’S AMBASSADOR-DESIGNATE TO THE U.S.

Michael B. Oren, the American-born and educated, and soon-to-be Israeli ambassador to the US, has a well established history of being a lackey for far-right Zionism and his most recent article, which has appeared in the latest issue of the neoconservative magazine ‘Commentary’, posits him clearly and firmly in the warmongering neocon camp of US and Zionist politics.

Born Michael Bornstein in upstate New York in 1955 and educated in the US, Oren has always been an ardent supporter of Zionism having been an activist in various Zionist Youth organisations while at school in the US and having made his first visit to Israel when he was 15 when he went to work on a Kibbutz. He studied for his degree at Columbia University where he went on to earn a Masters in International Studies in 1978. He then migrated to Israel in 1979 where he stayed for a few years during which time he joined the IDF. After his service with the IDF he returned to the US to complete a PhD in Near East Studies at Princeton University which he received in 1986.

During his service with the IDF he saw action as a paratrooper in the 1982 Lebanon war. Later, as a reservist and having returned to Israel after the completion of his research, Oren served as a liaison officer to the US Sixth Fleet during the 1991 Gulf War. During the 2006 Israeli assault on Hezbollah and Lebanon, Oren again served with the IDF Reserves, this time as an army spokesman. And latterly during the onslaught against the Gazan people in December 2008 and January 2009, Oren again was called up as a reservist when he was charged with presenting the Israeli army’s lies in the effort to avoid warcrimes charges being laid against the IDF as he himself explains in an article written as the onslaught got underway.

In his latest piece Oren reflects the thinking of the Netanyahu government and what it has in store for the people of the region. Oren calls his article ‘Seven Existential Threats’. Basically it’s a simple entreaty about ‘Israel the victim’ - again. Oren starts his list of ‘existential threats’ with this: “The preservation of Jerusalem as the political and spiritual capital of the Jewish state is vital to Israel’s existence.” This, of course, is pure nonsense. Jerusalem might well be the spiritual centre of the Jewish religion – as, indeed, it is for Christians, and also an important centre for Muslims as well – but to say that Israel’s existence depends on Jerusalem being the ‘political capital of the Jewish state’ is plain racist arrogance that demonstrates the Zionist contempt for other religions.

Next, Oren lists ‘The Arab Demographic Threat’ as being a threat to the Jewish state of Israel. Here Oren again displays his racism that is so typical of neocon Zionism. He writes: “Israel, the Jewish State, is predicated on a decisive and stable Jewish majority of at least 70 percent. Any lower than that and Israel will have to decide between being a Jewish state and a democratic state. If it chooses democracy, then Israel as a Jewish state will cease to exist.” This statement is a very thinly veiled threat that says that there will come a point that Israelis will have to forego democracy in order to maintain its Jewishness.

Oren then goes on to say: “Ideally, the remedy for this dilemma lies in separate states for Jews and Palestinian Arabs”, but then adds, “The basic conditions for such a solution, however, are unrealizable for the foreseeable future. The creation of Palestinian government, even within the parameters of the deal proposed by President Clinton in 2000, would require the removal of at least 100,000 Israelis from their West Bank homes. The evacuation of a mere 8,100 Israelis from Gaza in 2005 required 55,000 IDF troops—the largest Israeli military operation since the 1973 Yom Kippur War—and was profoundly traumatic. And unlike the biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria, which is now called the West Bank, Gaza has never been universally regarded as part of the historical Land of Israel.” Clearly, the Zionists do not have any intention of withdrawing the settlements from the West Bank which they regard as being a part of Israel and nor do they have any intention of allowing a Palestinian state.

Oren then concedes that, without the possibility of a ‘two-state paradigm’, “…international pressure will grow to transform Israel into a binational state”, and that “This would spell the end of the Zionist project.”

Curiously, what’s important here is not so much what Oran says but more what he doesn’t say, and that is; what will the Zionists do about what they consider to be their predicament.

Interestingly, Oren also lists ‘Delegitimisation’ as an existential threat. By ‘Delegitimisation’ he means the world is slowly waking up to the reality of Zionism as a virulent form of racist nationalism on a par with South African apartheid and twentieth century Nazism. He writes: “Most recently, Israel has been depicted as an apartheid state, effectively comparing the Jewish State to South Africa under its former white supremacist regime,” and continues saying, “Many of Israel’s counterterrorism efforts are branded as war crimes, and Israeli generals are indicted by foreign courts.”

Talking of ‘terrorism’, Oren also mentions that resistance to Israeli expansionism is an ‘existential threat’ to Israel. This, of course, is pure Chutzpah that is typical of Zionist propaganda. To them everyone that raises their hand to resist Israeli expansionism is labelled a Jew-hating ‘terrorist’.

Currently, the greatest ‘existential threat’ to Israel according to the Zionists and their neoconservative allies is Iran. The Iranian ‘threat’ is multi-faceted according to Oren. He writes: “The principal sponsor of Hamas and Hezbollah, Iran is inextricably linked to the terrorist threat. But when the Islamic Republic achieves nuclear weapons-capability—as early as this year, according to Israeli intelligence estimates—the threat will amplify manifold.”

Iran certainly does support Hamas and Hezbollah in their resistance to Israeli expansionism but to say that Iran is about to achieve ‘nuclear weapons-capability as early as this year’ is blatant scaremongering. Neither Israeli intelligence, nor any other intelligence organisation in the world, have any evidence whatsoever to suggest that Iran even has a nuclear weapons program let alone being on the brink of ‘nuclear weapons-capability as early as this year’.

Oren also bemoans Israel’s own sovereign powers saying that “A significant percentage of Knesset members, Arabs and Jews, do not recognize the validity of the state they serve. Some actively call for its dissolution. Israel is, quite simply, haemorrhaging sovereignty and so threatening its continued existence as a state.” While he also cynically writes that “Over 100 outposts have been established illegally in the West Bank, and Jewish settler violence perpetrated against Palestinian civilians and Israeli security forces is now regarded as a major threat by the IDF”, Oren goes on to hint at Israel having to “draw its eastern boundaries unilaterally”, that is to say; Israel will simply take chunks of the West Bank that they want for themselves saying: “The new borders should include the maximum number of Jews, of natural and strategic assets, and of Jewish holy places”, which will effectively eliminate any concerns he has about ‘Israeli sovereignty’.

Oren ends his list of what he considers are Israel’s seven ‘existential threats’ with the charge of corruption against ‘major Israeli leaders’. In this regard, Oren displays his own self-righteousness. Corruption virtually built Israel but for Oren, his concerns are not so much about morality, but more about it ‘emboldening Israel’s enemies and sullying Israel’s international reputation’.

Michael Oren is nothing more than a fanatical secular Zionist. If he were nothing more than that then world would have nothing to fear. However, he is about to become Israel’s next ambassador to the US. This gives him much power and, far more importantly since he is also an American with extensive contacts within the American hierarchy and ruling elites, massive influence within the corridors of power in Washington. Armed with the views he has expressed in his ‘Commentary’ article, he clearly is a man on a mission; a mission aimed only at creating the Zionist vision of Greater Israel that excludes any notion of any kind of Palestinian state but does entail a change of regime in Iran and the destruction of Hamas and Hezbollah.

Thr world is about to become an even more dangerous place. Oren’s extreme right-wing racist and nationalist views reflect the views of those that now govern Israel.

Peace will not get a chance with the likes of Oren at Israel’s helm. The one-state solution is the only solution.


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