Michael Oren won’t be doing lunch at the White House any time soon. At least until the next President comes along.

For this President, Barack Obama, he had words that make headlines, and the headlines keep on coming, and nobody’s smiling.

The White House wants him to take back what he said and so do members of his own party. Oren is an MK (Member of Knesset) with Kulanu. Before that, the American-born historian and diplomat served as Israel’s Ambassador to the United States from July 2009 until September 2013.

Happy days? Not exactly.

In an article for The Wall Street Journal a couple of days ago Oren spilled the beans on Obama, saying, for example: "From the moment he entered office, Mr. Obama promoted an agenda of championing the Palestinian cause and achieving a nuclear accord with Iran. Such policies would have put him at odds with any Israeli leader."

That’s just the appetizer from a book by Oren that’s sure to become a bestseller pending its release in a few days.

The book’s been titled “Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide.” The key word here is “divide.”

Oren makes it plain that as to the friction between the two leaders, Benjamin Netanyahu is not blameless, but Obama is mostly at fault.

Obama is no great friend of Israel, according to Oren, a man we’ve seen many times on television typified as a moderate. Oren personifies the term “a gentleman and a scholar.” He is no flame-throwing zealot. Some, in fact, view him as a left-winger. So it is surprising to find a man so mild-mannered, so cautious, so honorable, now expressing himself so defiantly.

The good old days, it seems, were around the time when George W. Bush preceded Obama, but I do not remember them being all that good.

Even for America Obama is no champion.
From me and from those who join me in my corner you will not find much support for Obama. We know how he feels about Israel.

Even for America Obama is no champion.

Oren comes to testify and to verify.

But when Bush was President it wasn’t Springtime for Israel, either. It was Bush who was hot to divide Israel in half. It was Bush who demanded a (disastrous) two-state solution and some may have forgotten his Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. I haven’t.

Condi logged more miles around the world than any State envoy and most days she landed in Israel. 

In Israel, grim and seldom as a friend, she insisted on “concessions.”

Never from Abbas. Always from Olmert and company who cheerfully obliged. To them, virtually the entire Land was a “bargaining chip.”

The Temple Mount…Jerusalem…Judea and Samaria…all of it or huge parts of it they offered Abbas.

Though still never enough. Abbas said no to a “peace process” that was near and dear only to Israel.

Depreciating Israel depreciates America. Where was that message from Israel’s friends and leaders?

We find that from Truman onward relations between the United States and Israel were not always rosy, contrary to the common perception.

It’s been rocky all along and part of the blame belongs to the American side.

But often enough it was Israel’s leadership that showed itself entirely too unwilling to proclaim Jewish sovereignty.

If the Jews themselves lack faith in their own proprietorship of their own homeland, what can you expect from America?

So the process of diminishing fellowship cannot be placed squarely on Obama, and Bush is not entirely at fault, either.

No, it all begins or rather escalates from the 1993 Oslo Accords onward to Sharon and his 2005 decree to wipe Israel off the map of Gaza. Gush Katif was a pogrom.

In terms of betrayal it stands with the Incident of the Spies.

This was a Ninth of Av Moment for the current era.

This was the signal to America and to the world that Israel can be played.

We hear that Bibi refuses to apologize for Oren’s remarks. That’s a move in the right direction.

Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. The new thriller from the New York-based novelist, The Bathsheba Deadline, a heroic editor’s singlehanded war on terror and against media bias. Engelhard wrote the int’l bestseller Indecent Proposal that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. Website: www.jackengelhard.com