AMU Homeland Security

Oren, Dermer and the Limits of Diplomacy

By Donald Sassano
In Homeland Security Guest Contributor

New controversies have erupted concerning Michael Oren, Israel’s former ambassador to the United States, and Ron Dermer, his successor.  Here’s the backstory:

By 2009, criticism of Israeli behavior began to bubble to the surface principally due to the mainstreaming efforts of journalists Andrew Sullivan and Philip Weiss, professors Steven Walt and John Mearsheimer, and others who began to take aim at the “special relationship” that exists between Israel and the United States.  Oren, appointed by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and tasked to shore up its increasingly fragile reputation appeared to be just the man for the job.

According to Israeli journalist Noam Sheizaf, Oren “enjoyed the credibility of the scholar, while doing pure political advocacy work”.  Indeed, the author and former American citizen possessed an ability to move gracefully, almost Zelig-like, between professional and national identities. Whether American or Israeli, soldier or statesman, high profile scholar or suave hasbarist, he fully inhabited his many roles by dint of appearance, intellect, and temperament.

And so the ambassador set about to employ his many gifts to reestablish formerly unquestioned dogma. Israel as strategic genius.  Israel as America’s indispensable partner and thinly veiled vanguard of U.S. military prowess in the Middle East. Israel as repository of American values in a sea of extremism. Oren smoothly contributed to the national default position that the Jewish State should be beyond criticism.

His tenure was problematic on many levels, but we should give him credit for executing pretty well.  Yes, he misplayed his hand once or twice.  Caught red handed attempting to quash the airing of an episode of 60 Minutes devoted to the plight of Christian Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, who can forget his on air deer-in-the-headlights gawk?

He wrote a controversial, propaganda-laden defense of Israel for Foreign Policy, maintaining, not surprisingly, that Israel is both a Jewish and liberal democratic nation.  Of course Israelis enjoy free and fair elections, an entrepreneurial high-tech culture, and a degree of social tolerance not regularly seen amongst its Arab neighbors.  But Oren the professional historian whitewashed the realities of Israel’s often brutal expropriation and continued occupation of Palestine. Clear-eyed critics like Sheizaf pounced.

It’s fair to ask what’s wrong with an Israeli diplomat who promotes the special relationship. After all, isn’t that his job? Realists like Walt and Mearsheimer maintain that no two countries have identical interests, even those seemingly joined at the hip. This may explain Oren’s attempt to suppress, deny, and obfuscate.  Better to muscle 60 Minutes into dropping the segment, as treatment of at-risk Christian minorities in the region is a concern to Israel’s conservative U.S. backers, many of them Christians themselves.  And if it’s necessary to risk one’s professional reputation as historian by producing agitprop, well, that’s also part of the job description.  For those less inclined to pursue any real discernment, encountering Oren one could almost be forgiven for thinking that Israel is America’s fifty-first state.  After all, he was one of us.  And therein lies a major reason why American policy in the Middle East has failed.

Enter Oren’s replacement, Ron Dermer.  Outwardly, the only attributes Dermer has in common with Oren are having relinquished his American citizenship and a pedigreed education.  Having grown up in Philadelphia and emigrated in 1996, Dermer became an Israeli in 2005 in order to serve as economic liason to the U.S.  Analysts regard him as overtly political (a family legacy, no doubt), and a Karl Rove-like conservative.  Subtle, he’s not.  Once a neocon himself, his views are apparently to the right of even Netanyahu.  Oren’s suavity was replaced by Dermer’s “take no prisoners” demeanor (no pun intended).

Fast forward to March 28.  Ambassador (not private citizen) Dermer will be attending the Republican Jewish Coalition’s Spring Leadership Conference in Las Vegas.  He is scheduled to appear with a fair number of Republican presidential aspirants, as well as the usual cadre of unrepentant neocons — Dick Cheney, John Bolton, et. al.  According to journalist Jim Lobe, one former American diplomat whom he interviewed explained that for a “foreign ambassador to appear publicly before a Republican group opposed to a Democratic administration could easily be seen as grounds for having him recalled by his government.”  Yes, but didn’t Netanyahu all but publicly endorse Mitt Romney?  The point is the diplomatic rules expected of most nations are mere niceties that Israel can, and does, willfully ignore.

Having pondered Oren’s tenure and Dermer’s brazen interference in domestic politics, I think it is essential that diplomatic conflicts of interest be laid bare.  In real estate, law mandates that brokers declare who they work for.  Are they agents of the seller? The buyer? Both?  Transgress this rule – work for the interests of one party while actually finagling on behalf of the other — and be prepared to be hauled before the local real estate commission, if not a judge.  Perhaps diplomats, especially Americans who have quit their citizenship in order to represent another country should be required to declare publicly who they really work for, early and often.

About the Author

Donald Sassano is a businessman with strong interests in Middle Eastern politics, U.S. Grand Strategy, and political theory. He completed his Master’s Degree in International Relations and Conflict Resolution with a concentration in Comparative and Security Issues at American Military University in 2013.

When he’s not reading and writing about foreign affairs, he works at commercial real estate to the extent necessary to keep a roof over his head. He resides with his wife Denise near Lake Erie in Rocky River, Ohio.

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