May 7, 2009

In designating former West Orange resident Michael Oren as his country’s ambassador to Washington, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has chosen someone who is intimate with the American-Jewish community; speaks an erudite, unaccented English; is wise in the ways of the media; and — at a time of looming tensions between his government and America’s — can make a polished and photogenic case for Israel directly to the American people and lawmakers.

Remind you of anybody? Most Americans were introduced to the MIT-educated Netanyahu when he served as Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations from 1984 to 1988, and many consider his frequent appearances on Nightline and other broadcasts as a high point in Israel’s often derided attempts at hasbara, or public information.

Oren is more than a smooth talker, however. A scholar of the first rank, his books include a magisterial history, Power, Faith, and Fantasy, which places America’s relationship with the Middle East in context going back to our country’s founding. Although he has long been associated with Israel’s right-leaning think tank the Shalem Center, he retains an independent streak as a scholar who transcends party lines. He supported the disengagement from the Gaza Strip and has signaled in his writings and in interviews that he recognizes the need for Israelis and Palestinians to separate (in large part because he believes so deeply in the notion of Israel as a Jewish state.) But having seen the aftermath of the Gaza pullout, he should have no trouble articulating Netanyahu’s vision of such a separation as the goal of negotiations, not their precondition.

And don’t confuse erudition and moderation with weakness. In remarks this week at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference, Oren said of Iran, “Israel will not remain passive while a government that’s sworn to wipe it off the map acquires the means for doing that.”

Oren showed the kind of mettle that will serve him well, whether sitting on a couch at the White House or in the hot seat at CNN.

And finally, on an unapologetically parochial note: In welcoming their new ambassador, the English-language Jerusalem Post took “pride in the appointment of a fellow Anglo, a reconfirmation of what immigrants can achieve in Israel.” We take pride in the appointment of a fellow New Jerseyan, a reconfirmation of the kinds of strong Jewish identities that can take root in the Garden State.

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