Former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren accused President Obama of abandoning Israel the moment he was elected in 2008, in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal.
Oren, who currently serves in the Knesset, charged that though both Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have made mistakes over the past six years that have damaged the relationship between the two countries, Obama did so “deliberately.”
“Obama promoted an agenda of championing the Palestinian cause and achieving a nuclear accord with Iran,” Oren wrote in the Monday night op-ed for the Wall Street Journal titled “How Obama Abandoned Israel.”
Obama was “never anti-Israel,” Oren said, however, “immediately after his first inauguration, Mr. Obama put daylight between Israel and America.”
Specifically, Oren quotes statements Obama allegedly made to Jewish leaders in 2009, as well as Obama ignoring the Israel withdrawal from Gaza and the peace offerings put forward by Israel in both 2000 and 2008 that were rejected by the Palestinians.
According to Oren, Obama asks Israel for so much, while asking nothing from the Palestinians.
“Israeli leaders typically received advance copies of major American policy statements on the Middle East and could submit their comments. 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,” he said as an example.
The past six years have been “successive crisis” in the U.S.-Israel relationship, Oren said, pushing that the two countries must restore the “no daylight” and “no surprises” principles to keep the Middle East from further unraveling.
Oren has a memoir detailing his time as ambassador due out next week.
