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1 month ago | 
claritywithmichaeloren.substack.com | Michael Oren
For the first time last week, before President Trump’s televised altercation with President Zelensky in the White House, the United States sided with Russia in opposing a UN resolution condemning Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine. And for the first time on such a resolution, Israel also voted “no.”The event, which further deepened the West’s division between America’s pro-Russian and Europe’s pro-Ukrainian camps, forced Israel to choose between its U.S. and Western European allies.
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2 months ago | 
claritywithmichaeloren.substack.com | Michael Oren
A diplomatic coup de main or more Trumpian madness? A strategic move like Trump’s threatened tariffs for Canada and Mexico—or a sincere proposal to take over a strip in the Middle East? Depending on who you ask, President Trump’s pronouncements on the Middle East, made in the presence of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, could be described either way.
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2 months ago | 
claritywithmichaeloren.substack.com | Michael Oren
After the Casablanca Conference in 1943, the Allies—the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union—committed to the “unconditional surrender” of Nazi Germany and Japan. That goal never changed. By contrast, the American policy toward this war has changed repeatedly.
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2 months ago | 
claritywithmichaeloren.substack.com | Michael Oren
Critics of Israel’s conduct of the war, both left-wing and right, have pointed out its many failures. After nearly a year and a half of intense combat, Hamas continues to control significant parts of Gaza, Hezbollah is far from defeated, and pro-Iranian militias in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen remain unbowed. Iran, moreover, the widely-crowned head of the snake, though weakened, still threatens Israel on multiple fronts. As of this writing, dozens of hostages languish in terrorist captivity.
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Jan 19, 2025 | 
claritywithmichaeloren.substack.com | Michael Oren
Outgoing President Joe Biden has described the hostage deal as a great diplomatic achievement. President-elect Donald Trump has called the deal “epic.” Iran is hailing it as a historic victory over the evil Zionists. In Gaza, Hamas terrorists and their supporters are triumphantly parading and firing their guns in the air. Ironically, the only people not reacting with unbridled joy - the reactions, in fact, are fragmented and often agonized - are we, the Israelis.
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Nov 28, 2024 | 
claritywithmichaeloren.substack.com | Michael Oren
President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration this January will signal a tectonic shift in American foreign policy unmatched by any since Ronald Reagan's swearing in 43 years before. With his understanding that diplomacy, to be effective, must be backed by power, Reagan succeeded Jimmy Carter who acted as if words alone could prevent the overthrow of the Shah of Iran or the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
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Nov 19, 2024 | 
claritywithmichaeloren.substack.com | Michael Oren
The spike in antisemitism globally, and most piercingly in the United States, is hardly news. Neither is the realization that the Jew-hated we now see all around us would have been readily recognizable to our forebears, that the reprieve from it we enjoyed in the decades after the Holocaust has ended, and that the world has simply reverted to form. And yet, there is something about contemporary antisemitism that sets it apart from its earlier and even ancient versions.
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Nov 1, 2024 | 
claritywithmichaeloren.substack.com | Michael Oren
Back in 1997, at the height of Hezbollah’s relentless campaign to drive the IDF out of Israel’s security zone in southern Lebanon, I made an out-of-the-box suggestion. Along with attacking the terrorists head-on, I gave an opinion in The Jerusalem Post that Israel should strike at one of their principal sources of funding – drugs. Back then, Hezbollah and its Syrian allies were regional leaders in the production of heroin.
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Oct 31, 2024 | 
claritywithmichaeloren.substack.com | Michael Oren
This article originally appeared in The Jerusalem Post on February 17, 1997. The search for ways to get back at Lebanon for all the terrible things Hizbullah has done to us and that we seemingly can't do back to Hizbullah has yielded an arsenal of nasty proposals for revenge. These run from bombing Lebanon's power stations to mining the backyard of its president, Elias Hrawi. These ideas are all fine and good in theory.
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Oct 5, 2024 | 
claritywithmichaeloren.substack.com | Michael Oren
Predictably, in response to Iran’s massive missile attack on Israel, Washington and other Western capitals are calling on Israel’s government to show restraint. They fear the outbreak of a total regional war into which their forces could be dangerously drawn. Israel, they stress, emerged from the assault relatively unscathed and its retaliation, therefore, should be proportionate.