Why is Michael Oren a natural for his job as ambassador?
A flattering Times profile of the new Ambassador described his background when he was appointed in September, 2009.
"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."
Prime Minister Netanyahu, who also spent parts of his youth in the US, chose Oren for his new position for moments like this one, as the presidential race is finally narrowed down to Obama versus Romney.
Oren's training for this post began in childhood.
The Times profile looks back to those early formative years:
"Mr. Oren's fervent Zionism dates from his childhood, though it was hardly inevitable. He grew up as Michael Bornstein in a conservative, but not politically active, family in West Orange, N.J. His father was the director of Newark Beth Israel Medical Center.
"At 15, Mr. Oren told his parents he wanted to move to Israel to work on a kibbutz. His parents were aghast, but they did not stop him when he talked his way into a job on an alfalfa farm, even though he was two years shy of the minimum age.
"A job as a cowboy on the Golan Heights followed, as well as athletic glory as an oarsman in the Maccabiah Games, where thousands of Jewish athletes from around the world compete every four years."
Steeped in the double speak of US politics, the Ambassador is skilled at the classic political tactic, which Zionist operatives have long utilized, of denying facts that do not exist, and then diverting attention from those manufactured facts to a different topic.
I once worked for a charming editorial director who had his own unique style in pursuing the same tactic.
Faced with unpleasant facts he would say, "What else do you want to talk about?" As the boss, he set the agenda, especially when he spoke with younger underlings.
Ambassador Oren had to renounce his American citizenship to accept his appointment as Israel's man in Washington. Was that difficult? You be the judge.
This is how Oren explained his decision in the 2009 Times profile by Mark Landler:
"For Michael B. Oren, the hardest thing about becoming Israel's ambassador to the United States was giving up his American citizenship, a solemn ritual that involves signing an oath of renunciation.
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