Ex-envoy to US: White House boycott of AIPAC tantamount to boycott of alliance with Israel
Former ambassador to US says Israel must focus on rehabilitating relations with US, White House should abstain from boycotting AIPAC.
By JPOST.COM STAFFFormer ambassador to the US Michael Oren(photo credit: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/ANNE MANDLEBAUM)
Former ambassador to the US Michael Oren addressed on Saturday media reports that the White House may boycott the upcoming AIPAC conference in an attempt to undermine Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Congress address, calling AIPAC a "strategic asset" to the State of Israel whose status "must not be harmed.""Should the American government choose to boycott AIPAC," Oren said, "it will essentially choose to boycott its strategic alliance with Israel."Since it is already a given that the premier will travel to the US and address Congress, Israel must accept the responsibility of rehabilitating its strategic alliance with the US, the former ambassador said.The only way to do this, according to Oren, is to present the US with a clear long-term outline of Israel's plans.Oren criticized the handling of Israel-US relations, saying that Israel must abide by long-term planning as opposed to act on short-term impulses."We must stop being fearful," he said, "and make the world adopt a new way of looking at us."
