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Monday, 9 May 2011 Yom Ha'Atzmaut - Amb. Michael Oren: Israel "The Ultimate Ally" by Jerry Gordon http://www.newenglishreview.org/images/clear.gif Transition Ceremony Yom Ha'Atzmaut (Israel Independence Day Mount Herzl, Jerusalem, 2010 Tonight, a few minutes after dark, a torch lighting transition ceremony at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl marks the celebration of Israel's birth-63 years ago- Yom Ha'Atzmaut (Independence Day). In honor of the occasion, we'd like to share with you an excerpt from an article <http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/04/25/the_ultimate_ally> ,"The Ultimate Ally," that appears in the May/June 2011 edition of Foreign Policy written by Israeli Ambassador to Washington, the Hon. Michael B. Oren. It is a long, but carefully crafted riposte to the arguments of so-called 'realists' in Washington foreign policy wonk circles that aims to prove them wrong and in Oren's words, justify, "why America needs Israel now." Orenis an American who made aliyah to Israel to Israel. He was born in upstate New York and grew up in New Jersey. His father was an American officer who participated in the D-Day landings, which influenced his own development as a soldier scholar after his emigration to Israel. He holds both undergraduate and Masters degrees from Columbia University and earned a Princeton PhD in Near East Studies. He was trained as a paratrooper in an elite IDF unit who served with distinction in combat during the First Lebanon War in 1982-1986. As a reserve officer in the IDF he was a spokesperson during the Second Lebanon Warin 2006 and media spokesperson during Operation Cast lead in 2008-2009. He is author of Six Days of War June 1967: The Making of the Modern Middle East <http://http/www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345461924/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_r d_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0195151747&pf_rd_ m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0DHJKZ2X2HQFAZBWTGSD> and Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present <http://http/www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393330303/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_2?pf_r d_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0195151747&pf_rd_ m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0DHJKZ2X2HQFAZBWTGSD> . Oren has <http://www.forward.com/articles/117204/> rejected invitations from the leftist Jewish group J Street because he does not believe it has his government's best interests at heart, despite the latter's slogan of being "pro Peace - Pro Israel". J Street, has been characterized by Lori Lowenthal Marcus of <http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_display.cfm/blog_id/33550> Z Street as being in reality an advocate for creation of an instant Palestinian State. Oren has also been the object of attacks here in the US by Muslim Brotherhood Fronts. Amb. Oren's speech at U.C. Irvine on Feb. 8, 2010 was disrupted by activists from the U.C. Riverside and U.C. Irvine Muslim Student Association chapters. 11 of them have been <http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_display.cfm/blog_id/32469> indicted by the Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas for conspiracy to deny Oren's Free Speech following a grand jury investigation. The U.C. Irvine MSA chapter was suspended from student activity support, but somehow managed to evade that and is now about to launch the latest iteration of Israel Apartheid Week at the Orange County, California Campus from May 9-13thironically featuring a roster of anti-Israel Jewish speakers. Foreign Policyhas to be commended for publishing this article by Amb. Oren, despite the platform it provides to prominent anti-Israel advocates like <http://www.hks.harvard.edu/about/faculty-staff-directory/stephen-walt> Stephen Walt of Harvard's Kennedy School. Here is an excerpt from Ambassador Oren's Foreign Policy article: What is the definition of an American ally? On an ideological level, an ally is a country that shares America's values, reflects its founding spirit, and resonates with its people's beliefs. Tactically, an ally stands with the United States through multiple conflicts and promotes its global vision. >From its location at one strategic crossroads, an ally enhances American intelligence and defense capabilities, and provides ports and training for U.S. forces. Its army is formidable and unequivocally loyal to its democratic government. An ally helps secure America's borders and assists in saving American lives on and off the battlefield. And an ally stimulates the U.S. economy through trade, technological innovation, and job creation. Few countries fit this description, but Israelis certainly one of them. Israel alliance has been upheld by successive American administrations and consistently endorsed by lawmakers and military leaders. It should be unimpeachable. But for some it is not. Rather than viewing Israel as a vital American asset, an increasingly vocal group of foreign-policy analysts insists that support for the Jewish state, including more than $3 billion in annual military aid, is a liability. Advocates of this "realist" school claim that the United States derives little strategic benefit from its association with Israel. The alliance, they assert, arises mainly from lobbyists who place Israel's interests before America's, rather than from a clearheaded assessment of national needs. Realists regard the relationship one-dimensionally -- America gives Israel aid and arms -- and view it as the primary sourceof Muslim anger at the United States. American and Israeli policies toward the peace process, the realists say, are irreconcilable and incompatible with relations between true allies. By definition, realists seek a foreign policy immune to public sentiment and special interest groups. In this rarefied view, the preferences of the majority of the American peopleare immaterial or, worse, self-defeating. This would certainly be the case with the U.S.-Israel alliance, which remains outstandingly popular among Americans. Indeed, a Gallup survey <http://www.gallup.com/poll/146408/Americans-Maintain-Broad-Support-Israel.a spx?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=syndication&utm_content=m orelink&utm_term=Politics> this Februaryshowed that two out of three Americans sympathize with Israel. Overall, since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and the wars in Iraqand Afghanistan-- and in spite of Israel's responses to the second intifadaand rocket attacks from Lebanonin 2006 and Gaza in 2008 -- support for Israel in the United States has risen, not declined. The surveys prove that most Americans do not accept the argument that U.S. support for Israel provokes Islamic radicals or do not especially care even if it does. In fact, a CNN survey taken later that week showed that eight out of 10 Americans still regarded Israel as an allied or friendly state. ( <http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/04/25/the_ultimate_ally> Read More) Tags: Yom Ha'Atzmaut <http://technorati.com/tag/Yom+Ha%27Atzmaut> , Israel Independence Day <http://technorati.com/tag/+Israel+Independence+Day> , Hon. Michael B. Oren <http://technorati.com/tag/+Hon.+Michael+B.+Oren> , Israeli Ambassador to Washington <http://technorati.com/tag/+Israeli+Ambassador+to+Washington> , The Ultimate Ally <http://technorati.com/tag/+The+Ultimate+Ally> , Foreign Policy <http://technorati.com/tag/+Foreign+Policy> http://www.newenglishreview.org/images/clear.gif Submit Your Comment <http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_comment.cfm/blog_id/34521> Posted on 05/09/2011 1:58 AM by jerryGordon [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [email protected]. -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [email protected] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [email protected] Unsubscribe: [email protected] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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