Former Israeli Ambassador on Antisemitism, War in the Middle East

Michael Oren sees education as an antidote to antisemitism, intimidation as the path to peace.

Michael Oren, the former Israeli Ambassador to the United States (2009-2013) and Deputy Minister of the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office (2016-2019), sat down with The Spectator in Beaver Creek, Colorado before his speech at the Steamboat Institute’s annual Freedom Conference.

The discussion with Oren comes at a time when antisemitism is on the march and war grips Israel. According to a recent Harvard-Harris poll, nearly 70% of Americans ages 18-24 view Jewish people as oppressors.

Oren believes that the most effective way to fight antisemitism is in the classroom. If you ask “people who think that Jews are oppressors” whether they are “antisemitic, they say no,” Oren explained. “They don’t see that one necessarily equals the other.” For Oren, therein lies the potential for education: “For the vast majority of these people, education does count. They've just never been exposed to it.”

Oren also believes that the strength of the protest movement is not as great as it seems.

The number of U.S. college students participating in anti-Israel protests, Oren noted, is surprisingly small. Specifically, he recounted that major protests only occurred on 60 of the thousands of U.S. college campuses.

Students’ attitudes are also more complex: “81% of students polled by a Harvard poll believed that the students who are protesting should be punished,” Oren said. “Not only do they not identify with them, they think they should be punished.”

Many claim that the anti-Israeli protests aren’t antisemitic and instead counter a genocidal state.

To Oren, though, singling out Israel is a form of antisemitism. “One of the international definitions of anti semitism is singling out Israel … for criticism that you would not apply to any other country,” he said.

“China,” Oren told The Spectator, “has jailed a million Muslims, put them in concentration camps — see any protests against China? Seen one?”

“There have been hundreds of thousands of people killed in the Sudan, 600,000 people killed in the Syrian civil war. Any protests against the Syrian government? By singling out Israel they’re fundamentally antisemitic. Do they understand that? They probably do not.”

After The Spectator informed him that no major pro-Palestinian protests occurred at W&L, Oren remarked that universities with a strong Greek system are rarely pro-Palestine.

But at universities where campus radicalism is prevalent, Oren sees creating a Jewish studies chair as an effective way to balance anti-Israel messaging from Middle Eastern studies programs.

Georgetown, Oren continued, did a particularly exceptional job balancing their faculty. Georgetown’s “middle east department is very radical,” and was “actually encouraging students to go out and protest, even “giving them extra credit” to do so.

“Georgetown created a separate department of Jewish Civilizations and endowed a chair in Israel studies. I was that professor for a year. That gives a fair rendition of Israel’s narrative. Doesn’t have to be propaganda — it just has to be fair.”

Oren also discussed the current situation in Gaza.

He believes that Sinwar, the head of Hamas in Gaza, doesn’t really want a ceasefire. “If he can’t get the maximum of what he wants, which basically means … he wins the war [and] he takes over the Gaza strip again … he’ll say to himself ‘well I’d rather have a war between Iran and Israel.’”

“Why would that happen? Because Iran and Hezbollah have said that if Sinwar accepts a ceasefire, they’ll accept a cease. And if Sinwar doesn’t accept a ceasefire, we are going to attack Israel.”

Such a war, Oren noted, “would be devastating.” Rockets from Hezbollah, Iran, Syrian militias, and even Yemen would likely overwhelm Israeli defenses.

It’s an outcome that is all too real Oren. “I had a guy killed up my block a couple weeks ago by a drone from Yemen, 2000 kilometers away.”

Ceasefire negotiations, Oren said, are difficult. “Sinwar wants the following: He wants a permanent ceasefire, he wants Israeli forces to withdraw from the Gaza strip.” Israel, Oren explained, wants a six-week ceasefire that could become permanent. They also want to maintain their occupation of crucial pathways to limit Hamas’s ability to move troops and weaponry.

“Now how do you bridge those two? Not easy, the United States is trying.”

To prevent such a devastating war, Oren believes that “there’s only one way to stop [Sinwar]. That is that the United States government says ‘anybody [who] wages that war is going to pay a very, very heavy price.”

“In Washington, unfortunately, there is this notion that in order to de-escalate you de-escalate. Whereas in reality, and certainly in the Middle East, in order to de-escalate you escalate.”

“The President,” Oren continued, “would have to put a credible military threat on the table, saying if you do this, this is gonna happen.”

“The last President to do that really effectively was Ronald Reagan in 1988” in Operation Praying Mantis. “Iran was firing at Kuwaiti tankers, and Reagan said ‘you fire one more tanker, you’re gonna have it.’ And they fired at a tanker. He took out half their navy and half their oil refineries. And guess what? They stopped.”

In his speech later that evening, Oren argued that this form of de-escalation is “not philanthropy, it’s not altruism. It’s self interest as well.”

“Fighting for freedom is not just a ‘do good’ thing … it’s what makes America secure, strong, and prosperous.” 

This interview was made possible by both the Southmayd Center for American Ideals and the Steamboat Institute. The Spectator thanks them for their support.