Ex-U.S. Envoy Daniel Kurtzer Blasts Oren's 'Astounding' Obama Criticism

Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer published a scathing rebuttal on his Facebook page to the criticism recently directed at the Obama administration by MK Michael Oren, and suggested Israel's former ambassador to the U.S. was blatantly ignoring the facts to further his political career.

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"Oren is a well-trained historian," wrote Kurtzer, "but his op-eds are replete with factual errors; and the judgments he derives from what he purports to be "facts" seem strange. Did he form judgments and then jerry-rig the facts to fit his case? It appears so, but that is what is so sad."

Kurtzer argued that Oren's "astounding and confounding" statements show he failed to understand and carry out the responsibilities placed on him. "If Oren had been a politician during these years," wrote Kurtzer, "then his views, however mistaken, would matter little. But part of his job was to help his own government understand us and our government, and we now see that he failed miserably on both counts."

"Can anyone imagine an American ambassador to Israel writing about Netanyahu what Oren has written about Obama, let alone working with the Israeli opposition party behind the back of the sitting prime minister, as Dermer has done with the Republicans?"

Kurtzer also quipped that Oren "appears to be following in the footsteps of his successor, Ron Dermer, who has prized Israeli politics above the diplomacy that he was appointed to practice."