NYT profiles Israel’s man in Washington
For Michael Oren, the hardest thing about becoming Israel's ambassador to the United States was giving up his American citizenship. Oren was featured in The New York Times' Saturday Profile:
Born in upstate New York, raised in suburban New Jersey and educated at Columbia and Princeton Universities, Mr. Oren considers himself genuinely American. But having lived most of his adult life in Israel — serving multiple tours in the Israeli Army, once as a paratrooper during the 1982 Lebanon war — he also considers himself genuinely Israeli.
“My decision to move to Israel was very much informed by my American experience,” Mr. Oren, 54, said over breakfast at his residence on a secluded, well-guarded street. “I felt a great deal of pride about being an American in Israel. I never thought there was any conflict in that.”
The state of Israel, however, does not allow dual citizens to represent it overseas. So when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked Mr. Oren in the spring to be his man in Washington, he had to make a choice.
Now a foreign national in the land of his birth, Mr. Oren is drawing on his American roots to make Israel’s case, at a time when relations between the countries have been frayed by a dispute over the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Articulate, telegenic and steeped in American culture, he is a smooth spokesman. But he faces an increasingly skeptical audience.
Full story here.
2 Comments
Share This
Comments RSS Feed Reader Comments
Nowhere in the article does it say that Mr. Oren cares more about Israel than the United States.
For people who are genuinely interested in Mr. Oren’s story, I suggest you click the “Full story here” link at the end of the article and read the full profile of Mr. Oren - degrees from Princton, Columbia (2 actually), decades of service as an IDF soldier, well known scholar, recognized author, and public servant.
Mr. Oren is, most importantly, a man of character and integrity.
And not incidentally, there are an uncountable number of Jews all over the world outside of Israel who do not think of or believe that Israel is a foreign country.
Leave a Comment
To comment on this article, you must first be registered with JTA.
Not Registered?
There are real advantages to a FREE registration with JTA.org:
- Make your voice heard through comments on articles
- Receive our e-mailed Daily Briefing, an invaluable quick-read
- Help decide what Jewish news matters most with interactive tools
Register Now
Already a JTA member?
David
09/29/09 11:21 AM
Well, when an American cares more about a foreign nation than his own, he should have to give up his American citizenship.