Ambassador Michael Oren: Why Jews Boycotting Israeli Settlements Is Wrong (and Counterproductive)

Ambassador Michael Oren is perhaps Israel's most eloquent spokesperson. A historian of the first order, he authored the definitive work on Israel's 1967 War; 

Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East, and more recently, Power, Faith and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present. 

This week, he graced Seattle's shores with his presence, appearing on Steve Scher's Weekday, met with the Seattle Times, spoke at AJC's Inter-faith/Inter-ethnic Group (AJC hosted an Interfaith and Intergroup Luncheon with Seattle’s religious and cultural leaders, allowing for an opportunity to engage in an open and honest dialogue about Israel), and culminated his whirlwind visit to Seattle with a talk at Temple de  Hirsch Sinai. 

Ever the diplomat, as well as an individual of class and distinction, Oren did not mention individuals (Peter Beinart) or groups (J-Street) by name. But his message was clear: Being Pro-Israel cannot mean advocating boycotts of any sort against the Jewish State, or bemoaning the state of Israeli democracy (in fact, democracy in Israel is alive and well and thriving, messy as it may be). And the settlements, however problematic they may be, do not constitute a major impediment to a peace process and an ultimate two-state solution. Presenting them as such is disingenuous. They are a red-herring. Were there a realistic partner on the other side who could deliver, any issues vis-a-vis the settlements could be accommodated. But as long as the Palestinians refuse to sit at the table without pre-conditions, and as long as Hamas remains ascendant in Palestinian politics, it is a categorical misrepresentation to lay the blame for the impasse in the "peace process" at the feet of the Israelis. 

david in Seattle

American Jews boycotting Israeli settlements is terribly wrong

Sometimes it seems that we, Israelis and American Jews, not only inhabit different countries but different universes, different realities," Israel Ambassador to U.S. Michael Oren says • "At stake is nothing less than the unity of a Jewish people."

Israel Hayom Staff

Ambassador Michael Oren. [Archive] |  Photo credit: AP

The divide separating American and Israeli Jews is growing, Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren said on Sunday, adding that the unity of the Jewish people should be a primary concern for all Jews.

Speaking at the Jewish Council for Public Affairs Plenum in Detroit on Sunday, Oren discussed his three children — Yoav, Lia and Noam — and described himself as an Israeli father shocked that American Jews would consider boycotting Israel while his own children were looking for bomb shelters and managing recruits in the Israel Defense Forces.

"There are American Jewish concerns such as ensuring Jewish continuity, maintaining Jewish institutions, affording a Jewish education. All are genuinely serious concerns, and not just for American Jewish kids," Oren told the audience in Detroit, made up of leaders from all walks of Jewish life. "I was shocked, then, that on the very day that I spoke with my kids about their concerns in Israel, some American Jews were discussing a call to boycott products made by Israeli settlements in the West Bank."

Oren said that he followed the issue because it was his duty to do so as an ambassador, but that he reacted to it as an Israeli father with genuine Israeli concerns.

"Something is wrong here. Terribly wrong," Oren said of the growing distance between Israeli and American Jews. "No doubt, a majority of American Jews care deeply about the security of Israel and oppose those seeking to undermine it. And even some of those calling for boycotts do so out of a sense of caring — I’d say misplaced sense of caring — about Israel."

If Jews do not join together as brothers and sisters, Oren added, the issue will become much bigger than questions of politics or free speech.

"Let me be clear: At stake is not merely Israel’s policies or rights of American Jews to criticize them. At stake is nothing less than the unity of the Jewish people," he said. "Israel is our state, a work in progress in which every Jew can play a part. Of course, sovereignty is messy, and Jews can and will disagree about Israeli policies without necessarily loving Israel any less. Still, people often ask me, 'how do you define pro-Israel?' I have some elementary answers."

Oren then described for the audience what it meant to be "pro-Israel." A pro-Israel person, he said, "recalls what Jewish life was like without a Jewish state and works to ensure that there always will be a Jewish state." A pro-Israel person is also "grateful every day that he or she lives in a time in Jewish history when there is a proud and independent Jewish state."

But there is more to being pro-Israel, Oren added. A pro-Israel person sees Israel's flaws and conundrums and thinks critically about them, but nevertheless, Oren says, "the pro-Israel person also asks, 'how can I contribute to Israel, how can I enrich it and be enriched by it?'"

Three other stipulations make a person pro-Israel, Oren said. First, a pro-Israel person is aware that Israel is a tiny country living under a massive, deafening threat. Second, a pro-Israel person knows that making peace with the Palestinians constitutes a very real risk that the West Bank will devolve into a terror haven, just as Gaza did. Third, and finally, Oren said "a pro-Israel person takes pride in Israel’s incalculable successes."

The secret to the Jewish people's success, Oren stressed repeatedly during his speech, is the unity of the Jewish people. That means that the Jewish State of Israel and the broader, farther-flung tribe that is the Jewish people, must work together, not against each other, to be each other's lifelines.

"We are a small people, but we face big problems. We are a small people, with immense achievements. But we are a people. And because we are people, we have been able to overcome adversity. Peoplehood is the secret to our success," he said. "That's why the great task of our generation is to preserve our unity."