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Last update - 14:20 12/05/2009
New envoy to U.S.: Soon Jews won't want to live in Israel
By Akiva Eldar, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Israel News, Michael Oren

Suppose a Jewish couple considering immigration to Israel were to ask a bored Jewish Agency emissary for background material on the situation here. "It just so happens I received something today that might interest you," the emissary might reply, pulling out the most recent article written by Dr. Michael Oren, Israel's ambassador-designate to the United States.

This article might well deter the potential immigrants from ever bothering the agency's emissary again. Under the title "Seven Existential Threats," published in the latest issue of the conservative Jewish publication "Commentary," Oren wrote that Israel has no competition in the modern era when it comes to the number and variety of threats that endanger the Jewish state's existence.

Oren, a historian from the Shalem Center whom Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tapped for Israel's top diplomatic post, described a country rotten to the core, riddled by everything from drug dealing to white slavery, from money laundering to illegal arms trading.
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He reported that not even the army has escaped the clutches of corruption, thus weakening Israelis' will to fight for their country, or even to live in it. Moreover, Oren complained, Israel's best and brightest are being persecuted around the world for what the country's detractors term "war crimes."

Upon reading this article (which was written before he was appointed to his ambassadorial post), American Jews will also learn that the Jewish people will soon lose Jerusalem as its eternal capital, as this city, too, is under existential threat: A majority of Jerusalem's inhabitants (272,000 Arabs and 200,000 ultra-Orthodox, out of a total of 800,000 residents) are not Zionists; secular Jews are fleeing the city; and fully half of Israel's youth have never even visited the holy city.

According to Oren, "if this trend continues, [Israeli founding father David] Ben Gurion's nightmare will materialize and Israel will be rendered soulless, a country in which a great many Jews may not want to live or for which they may not be willing to give their lives."

Next on the list are the existential demographic threat, the existential terrorist threat and the existential threat of Iran's nuclear capability. Interspersed throughout the article are a few rather existential historical inaccuracies, such as the claim that no Arab leader has ever recognized Israel as a Jewish state (the 1988 Palestinian declaration of independence recognized the Jewish state), or that between 1957 and 1967, hundreds of Jews were killed in acts of terror (the number is less than two dozen).

Particularly interesting is the solution to the existential demographic problem hat ambassador-to-be Oren proposes ¬ unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank to borders that would be determined in accordance with the following principles: maximum Jewish population, strategic assets, holy sites and natural resources. In other words, the historian-ambassador believes it is possible, and even appropriate, to (continue to) rob the Palestinians not only of their land, but also of their water and quarries.

This delusional article should come as no surprise to Haaretz readers with long memories. In December 1993, several weeks after the Oslo agreements were signed, this paper reported that Oren had written a document proposing the establishment of "a centrist bloc headed by [then] chief of staff Ehud Barak and MK Benny Begin as a counterweight to Yitzhak Rabin, who is being led by the left and Yossi Beilin, and to Benjamin Netanyahu, who is being dragged after the extreme right."

At that time, the American Jewish Committee, a smallish Jewish organization, had named Oren its representative in Israel. Now, Netanyahu the one who was in the clutches of the extreme right (presumably no longer?) ¬ is appointing him to be Israel's number-one representative to the most important superpower in the world.

Crisis in a phone booth

The crisis that has beset the Israeli delegation to the International Women's Commission undermines the theory that if women were in charge of the peace process, the many men who make their livings from the conflict would have to find new jobs. The internal struggle in the phone booth that houses what remains of the peace camp is paralyzing activity in the Israeli-Palestinian channel of the United Nations organization, which includes leaders from around the world.

The controversy broke out over Operation Cast Lead in Gaza earlier this year. Members of the Israeli steering committee ¬ Prof. Galia Golan, Prof. Naomi Chazan, Anat Sargusti and Aida Touma-Sliman ¬ signed a statement harshly condemning Israel. They agreed with their Palestinian comrades and other international delegates that Israel perpetrated a "massacre" in Gaza and urged the international community to "put an end to the madness."

Former Knesset member Colette Avital ¬ an IWC veteran who also heads the Labor Party's external relations department ¬ protested the declaration, charging that it failed to mention Hamas' attacks against Israeli civilians. She herself traveled to Europe during the war with a delegation of Knesset members to explain Israel's position. Eti Livni, a former Knesset member from the Shinui party, sent her colleagues an e-mail asking: "Are we talking about a struggle between the forces of light, Hamas, and the forces of darkness, murderers?"

The Palestinian delegates said they would not sit with women who justified the war. The Israeli steering committee hinted to the two that their resignations would be welcomed. Former Meretz MK Chazan wrote in a letter to her colleagues that delegates from the rest of the world were discomfited by the Israeli group's inability to support the commission's basic stance, which opposes all violence. Chazan cautioned that prolonging this situation would lead the commission to a sad end.

After lengthy soul-searching, Avital decided to resign angrily from the organization, but Livni continues to resist. She said yesterday that she has no intention of "abandoning the arena to colleagues who surrender to the Palestinians' dictates." Those who want her expelled from the organization will have to do it themselves.

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      1.   Yes, nobody wants to live in a weak, shrinking state 04:58  |  Boris 12/05/09
      2.   It was not as bad as when Sharon gave away Gaza 05:23  |  nobody 12/05/09
      3.   finally u said something right 05:31  |  Ivan 12/05/09
      4.   #1 Boris. It`s not a place to raise children. 05:35  |  Lou Medel 12/05/09
      5.   they were kicked out from Sinia and gaza!! 05:56  |  Eyal 12/05/09
      6.   What do people expect 05:59  |  sam 12/05/09
      7.   I know exactly why Jews are leaving the promised land! 06:20  |  d.dor 12/05/09
      8.   to #4: place to raise children 06:24  |  Irving Kurchin 12/05/09
      9.   Medel as a spruiker for Iran "A light unto the nations" 06:27  |  PETER SM 12/05/09
      10.   to Irving, Nr.8 07:12  |  Emilio 12/05/09
      11.   #8: Israeli healthcare and education 07:24  |  Jonah 12/05/09
      12.   So what? Most Jews never wanted to live there. 07:27  |  Oscar 12/05/09
      13.   perfectionism to extreme 07:38  |  sigal 12/05/09
      14.   #8, they also have free acess to deadly kassam attacks 07:43  |  Jonny 12/05/09
      15.   Jews Will Always Want To Live In OUR Land 07:47  |  Yishai Kohen 12/05/09
      16.   Maybe its time to crack the whip on those dud sperm 07:49  |  Johnboy 12/05/09
      17.   NOT SOON, NOW 08:08  |  indrajaya 12/05/09
      18.   Existence 08:19  |  Matthew Houston 12/05/09
      19.   New envoy should speak for himself 08:20  |  Zev 12/05/09
      20.   New envoy 08:27  |  Ephraim Ben-Zeev 12/05/09
      21.   Autodestruction makes the strength of Jewish people. 09:47  |  Jew- and Bookburner 12/05/09
      22.   Why would any one want to live in Israel? 09:48  |  Damian Lataan 12/05/09
      23.   @ 7 So what makes the difference to th rest of Western countries? 09:59  |  Jew- and Bookburner 12/05/09
      24.   PETER SM cries crocodile tears for the Palestinians 10:18  |  Natallie Durson 12/05/09
      25.   it is form not substance netanyahu has chosen 10:49  |  gad 12/05/09
      26.   as for me natalie durson i tell you straight 10:56  |  gad 12/05/09
      27.   DDor 11:07  |  sweis 12/05/09
      28.   Why are the Jews leaving? 11:14  |  Alicia 12/05/09
      29.   when we wail and remonstrate every time obama 11:14  |  amir drori 12/05/09
      30.   Damian 11:17  |  Sweis 12/05/09
      31.   I HOPE SO 11:20  |  indrajaya 12/05/09
      32.   Wow...! apparently Bibi did not do his home-work well... 11:22  |  Esther 12/05/09
      33.   naarishkeit to frighten fools 11:25  |  Ilan 12/05/09
      34.   and this is our ambassador? 11:28  |  sweis 12/05/09
      35.   gad #18... if I were a displaced Palestinian... 11:32  |  Esther 12/05/09
      36.   #16 - Natallie 11:57  |  Adam 12/05/09
      37.   d.dor : you are absolutely right! 12:18  |  Aaron 12/05/09
      38.   Struggle to live in Israel 12:25  |  Aaron 12/05/09
      39.   To Aaron 13:40  |  Anne 12/05/09
      40.   esther no tirade just the truth 13:50  |  gad 12/05/09
      41.   Who wants to live in a "target range?" 14:47  |  a wandering Jew 12/05/09
      42.   For d.dor # 7 14:47  |  Fortuna Benmayor 12/05/09
      43.   #3 14:55  |  Watcher 12/05/09
      44.   To #17 14:57  |  Watcher 12/05/09
      45.   Natallie 14:58  |  pt 12/05/09
      46.   Natallie 15:06  |  pt 12/05/09
      47.   To Sigal 15:29  |  Sam Soul 12/05/09
      48.   Oren Is Yet Another Deceiver 15:52  |  Yaakov Sullivan 12/05/09
      49.   Soon? 16:24  |  Giora Me`ir 12/05/09
      50.   $48sullivan travels throught he looking glass again and again 16:40  |  v hardman 12/05/09
      51.   #24 Natallie 16:41  |  Daniel 12/05/09
      52.   Lou Medel 16:54  |  Arik 12/05/09
      53.   poor Aaron@38 who thinks life is better in Holland and not in 17:03  |  Whiskey/Bravo 12/05/09
      54.   Give away land? Or return? 17:07  |  Shylock 12/05/09
      55.   According to the MFA website, 125 were murdered between `57 &`67 17:29  |  Robert 12/05/09
      56.   amir drori@29 ..Quite true,NO NEED TO EVEN BOTHER.. 17:32  |  Whiskey/Bravo 12/05/09
      57.   Hey Emilio@10 ARE YOU JOKING? OH,YOU MUST BE. 17:43  |  Whiskey/Bravo 12/05/09
      58.   To Whiskey 17:44  |  Sam Soul 12/05/09
      59.   Anne Says@39 And I will Quote her. 17:57  |  Whiskey/Bravo 12/05/09
      60.   To Sam Soul 18:19  |  ZL 12/05/09
      61.   Better Places to Live 18:27  |  Vladek 12/05/09
      62.   This is Eretz Yisrael. Jews already have and will dwell here 18:30  |  David 12/05/09
      63.   What about the USA 18:33  |  R2 12/05/09
      64.   To gad @25 And I remember at first having reservations. 18:39  |  Whiskey/Bravo 12/05/09
      65.   Yaakov 18:55  |  Ari 12/05/09
      66.   the sooner they move the better, 18:56  |  US Person 12/05/09
      67.   To ZL 19:01  |  Sam Soul 12/05/09
      68.   If Holocaust did not teach Jews 19:06  |  Gene 12/05/09
      69.   vladek 19:07  |  sweis 12/05/09
      70.   To Ilan @33 Naarishkeit to frighten fools.And wonder why Akiva is 19:13  |  Whiskey/Bravo 12/05/09
      71.   David from Boston 19:21  |  arik 12/05/09
      72.   Ari, not quite so clear 19:27  |  Yaakov Sullivan 12/05/09
      73.   To Vladek@61 ...I can well Imagine the better places to live.BUT! 19:42  |  Whiskey/Bravo 12/05/09
      74.   Yaakov 19:54  |  Ari 12/05/09
      75.   Yaakov - amended 20:03  |  Ari 12/05/09
      76.   Whiskey Bravo (what kind of name is that anyway) 20:12  |  Aaron 12/05/09
      77.   Anne (39) 20:23  |  Aaron 12/05/09
      78.   The reverse makes more sense 20:24  |  Kate Raphael 12/05/09
      79.   Eldar dead wrong about Palestinian Dec. of Ind. recog. Jewish St. 20:33  |  Robert 12/05/09
      80.   Oren is great, health care is great 20:40  |  Todd 12/05/09
      81.   kate Raphael 20:47  |  jennifer 12/05/09
      82.   To Kate Raphael.@78..The reverse has been promoted . 20:49  |  Whiskey/Bravo 12/05/09
      83.   Ari-that is your assumption, speculation 20:57  |  Yaakov Sullivan 12/05/09
      84.   lou meddling in fantasy 21:00  |  a voice 12/05/09
      85.   You Dont Need To Put Words in Oren`s Mouth 21:01  |  Yaakov Sullivan 12/05/09
      86.   Whiskey/Bravo 21:10  |  jennifer 12/05/09
      87.   Comon Aaron @76You forgot the "slash" Just my Phonetic Title. 21:16  |  Whiskey/Bravo 12/05/09
      88.   # 4 it`s NOT too late for israel, lou mendel (3rd try) 21:25  |  eric 12/05/09
      89.   This Article Is Delusional 21:35  |  Moishe Goldstein 12/05/09
      90.   Dear David From Boston@62...If only I could recompense you.... 21:46  |  Whiskey/Bravo 12/05/09
      91.