Free Republic

TEL AVIV – The Orlando attack, in which first generation U.S. citizen Omar Sadiqqui Mateen shot at least 50 people in a gay club, will help Donald Trump’s chances of becoming president, Israel’s former ambassador to the U.S. said.

Former ambassador to the US Michael Oren, whose book on his experience in Washington is due out on Tuesday, continues to ruffle feathers by criticizing US President Barack Obama’s Mideast policies in op-ed pieces in the US press. In a piece Friday in Foreign Policy, Oren – who left Washington on October 1, 2013, and is now a Kulanu MK -- charged that Obama was naïve as a peacemaker, had blinders to terrorism, and that his abandonment by both his Muslim father and step-father had something to do with his desire to be accepted by their “co-religionists.” And in a...

A spokesman for the State Department in Washington on Wednesday denounced what he called the "false" assertions by former Israeli ambassador and current MK Michael Oren, who said the Obama administration has abandoned Israel. In an op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal earlier this week, Oren, now a member of the Kulanu party, said President Barack Obama had dropped the core principles guiding Israeli-U.S. ties of "no daylight, no surprises." Oren, who served as ambassador from 2009 to 2013, acknowledged that Israel blundered in many instances, but added that "while neither leader monopolized mistakes, only one leader made them...

(Reuters) - Israel must try to repair relations with the United States no matter who wins Tuesday's election, said Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to Washington and a potential foreign minister if his party joins the next government. "We have to do a major reach-out. There's some work to be done," Oren said, citing strained ties after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's March 3 speech to Congress assailing a potential nuclear deal with Iran sought by President Barack Obama. The U.S.-born Oren, 59, was appointed ambassador by Netanyahu in 2009 and served until 2013. He is running for parliament as...

Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Oren warned Sunday that any evidence of chemical weapons being passed from the Assad regime to terrorist groups like Hizbullah would be a “red line for Israel” and could constitute military action. While Oren could not confirm recent claims that the Syrian regime is mixing and moving components for the deadly sarin nerve gas, he said that Israel is watching the situation "very carefully." "Were those weapons to pass into the wrong hands -- Huzbullah's hands, for example -- that would be a game-changer for us," Oren told "Fox News Sunday."

Israel's ambassador to the United States warned Sunday that any evidence of chemical weapons being passed from the Assad regime to extremist groups like Hezbollah would be a "game-changer," and said that would be a "red line" for Israel. The remark comes amid claims that the Syrian regime is mixing and moving the components for the deadly sarin nerve gas. Ambassador Michael Oren said he could not confirm those reports but made clear that Israel is watching the situation "very carefully." "Were those weapons to pass into the wrong hands -- Hezbollah's hands for example -- that would be a...

   Ambassador Oren Remarks to Mark July 4th, U.S. Independence Day  Friday, 01 July 2011 14:26    July 4th is, of course, a special day for Americans, and we Israelis celebrate it as well. We celebrate with you because America’s independence is essential to Israel’s independence. Your love of liberty is the same as ours and our reverence for democracy is identical. We rejoice because your Founding Fathers were inspired by our Founding Fathers.Back in 1776, American patriots compared King George III to the ancient Pharaoh who enslaved the Jews. George Washington, in their minds, was Moses and John Adams...

The University of California, Irvine suspended its Muslim Student Union (MSU) for a year after a school investigation concluded the group organized disruptions of a February speech by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren, then lied about it. The suspension is effective September 1. The chapter must complete 50 hours of community service before it can apply for reinstatement. If that is granted, the MSU faces another year of disciplinary probation. In a 14-page letter dated May 27, UCI Housing Senior Executive Director Lisa Cornish detailed the findings of the school investigation. It found that MSU violated four student policies involving dishonesty,...

Film shows Israel's Ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, trying to speak at UC Irvine on February 8, 2010.

Eleven Students were arrested during the University of California Irvine Speech of Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Oren Monday night. “Michael Oren, propagating murder is not an expression of free speech,” the student in a gray hoodie yelled. It was the first of 10 interruptions throughout the speech, and by the end of the night, 11 UC Irvine and Riverside students were arrested and cited for disturbing a public event. Today, CAIR, asked for dropping of the charges against the students saying that by ruining Ambassador Oren's freedom of speech they were exercising their freedom of speech. For...

Some call him the new Moshe Arens, others compare him to Benjamin Netanyahu - either way Michael Oren has become one of Israel's most prominent English speakers since being named the new ambassador to the United States this week. While many in the local Anglo community celebrated their fellow immigrant's success, friends and companions reminisced this week about different aspects of the eclectic scholar-turned-diplomat's personality. Jewish Agency spokesman Michael Jankelowitz met him in the early 1980s, while Oren was working on his Ph.D. at Princeton University. Jankelowitz, who was an emissary for American campus activity at the time, says Oren...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's candidate for Israeli ambassador to Washington, Dr. Michael Oren, supports a unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and an evacuation of most of the settlements. Oren, a visiting Georgetown University professor, said in a lecture there last month, "The only alternative for Israel to save itself as a Jewish state is by unilaterally withdrawing from the West Bank and evacuating most of the settlements." Oren, a Middle East expert and senior researcher at Jerusalem's Shalem Center, gave a 90-minute lecture entitled "The Gaza Crisis from an Historical and Personal Perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." Answering...

Weekend Talk Show Preview - Analysis for August 5th and 6th, 2006On the Sunday shows I'm probably most interested in Fox News Sunday's line up.  I want to hear Newt and Biden, mostly to see if they've changed their act for their second appearance together in three weeks.  What is this, a do over or the beginning of a traveling show?  Actually, that might have some interest.  Maybe they're auditioning to get their own show if this whole presidential thing doesn't work out.  Hadley made news on Iraq this week by saying that this is mostly sectarian violence now, instead...

By OREN DORELL, Staff Writer A Raleigh man was arrested twice Friday morning on charges of drunken driving -- once after an accident and again three hours later after returning to his car and driving it away from where it was parked. "It was absolutely terrible," Sougata Mukherjee , editor of the Triangle Business Journal, said Friday afternoon, summing up a night that began at Sullivan's Steakhouse on Glenwood Avenue. "This is the first time something like this has happened to me." Mukherjee's first arrest occurred after his 2001 Nissan Pathfinder rear-ended a 2001 Saab driven by Winston Cavin, a...