Media Analysis

Oren warns U.S. Jews to ‘be aware’ Biden will defy Israel on Palestine and Iran issues

Joe Biden is “deeply pro-Israel,” but if elected president he will cross Israel on two “substantive” issues– Palestinian rights and Iran– and American Jews should “be aware” of that, former Israeli ambassdor Michael Oren warned in an interview last week. Oren said Iran was a threat to the Israeli future and he suggested Israel would have to deal with Biden as it dealt with Barack Obama, with whom Israel had “stark” differences.

Oren, was asked on the Jewish Broadcasting Service, “Will it hurt Israel if Trump loses?” and Oren, who grew up in the U.S. and then moved to Israel, implied that it would. He said:

I know Joe Biden very well, I know Senator Harris pretty well, I escorted her to Israel here, and I know that they are both deeply pro Israel they are very supportive of the US Israel alliance, they will never use U.S. aid to Israel as a means of pressuring Israel. They’ve gone on the record saying that.

But having said that There are two major policy differences we are going to have should they win, should the Democratic ticket wins. One will be on the Palestinian issue and the other will be on the Iranian issue. Certainly the Iranian issue is one that goes to the very heart of Israel’s security, to the future of our children and grandchilden.

So these are substantive matters, not political. While I can’t call the decision for American Jews, including my own family who are overwhelmingly Democratic like the majority of American Jews, who care about the composition of the Supreme Court and other issues, antisemitism– they should be aware that these two major policy differences… should the Democrats win, Israel is going to have deal with as best we can. We dealt with the Obama administration as best we can. The differences there were very stark indeed.

At the end of the day there’s no substitute for America as Israel’s ultimate ally, there’s no substitute for the Jewish community as the second largest Jewish community in the word, together we are the Jewish people… and we’re just going to have to make the best of it irrespective of what happens.

One takeaway from these comments is how accustomed Israel is to getting whatever it wants from the U.S. Oren is lukewarm about a party that has done nothing but defend Israel even as it massacred children. Obama made feeble efforts to stop settlements but gave up due, then upped the U.S. aid to Israel to $4 billion a year. Obama did defy Israel by reaching a deal with Iran, which Trump then broke. Biden says he will restore the Iran deal.

Israeli Jews support Trump overwhelmingly; but Oren’s warning is likely falling on deaf ears in the U.S. Polling says Jewish voters back Biden over Trump by anywhere from 70 to 27 percent, to 75 to 22. Biden is said to hold a “massive” lead over Trump among Jewish voters in two key states, Florida (73-22 percent) and Pennsylvania (75-22). “The polls reaffirm that Israel is not at all a top voting issue for Jewish voters, with just 6% in Florida listing it among their top priorities,” J Street reports.

Michael Oren, in interview with Jewish Broadcasting Service, Oct. 15, 2020. Screenshot from youtube.

Trump’s blank-check support for Israel and his possible successor’s likely quarrels with Israel may continue to drive a wedge between the majority of American Jews and the Jewish state. Despite Oren’s efforts to strengthen that alliance.

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Here we go again. Israel wants the US President to do what is best for Israel first, over America.
Is Oren going by the narrative “we control America, and they know it?”

They were able to buy Trump’s “loyalty” by having Adelson pay millions towards Trump’s campaign, and Trump returned that favor, even defying the rest of the world, who did not want him to move the US embassy to Jerusalem. Looks like Oren/Israel is once again using scare tactics to get American Jews to vote for yet another four years of what is the worst for America.

“At the end of the day there’s no substitute for America as Israel’s ultimate ally, there’s no substitute for the Jewish community as the second largest Jewish community in the word.”
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Hopefully Palestinian leaders, cultural and political, are figuring on how to build political bridges to Americans and their Jewish Community and not waiting for a President to deliver justice for them.

Who’s the dog, and who’s the tail?

What else to expect from traitor Oren who abandoned his country to become a citizen of our favorite little racist Banana Republic. Naturally it’s the USA “defying” the mighty child killers…

Obama didn’t up aid to Israel. Congress did.