(Photo: wikicommons/Maryland GovPics)
Dr. Michael Oren has had a long career serving the Jewish state and its people - as an ambassador, currently in the Knesset, and now as a special envoy to PM Netanyahu. In an interview with The Times of Israel's Raphael Ahren, Dr. Oren discusses how he plans on combating attacks on Israel by the BDS movement by telling those who stand for Israel how they can best defend her:
Last month, the US-born historian-cum-diplomat-cum-politician was named a deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Office dealing with foreign policy and public diplomacy — a position Oren called his “dream job..."
Israel has to grapple with several very serious challenges, Oren posited. “It’s the best of times and the worst of times for Israel.”
For one, Iran and the Islamic State terror group pose genuine security threats to Israel. And then there are also countries and organizations in the world seeking to delegitimize Israel and to deny it the right to defend itself and to exist as a sovereign Jewish state, Oren added.
“There are terrorists groups like Hamas and Hezbollah that know they can’t destroy us by military means but they can create a situation where our hands will be legally tied while they shoot rockets at us. That’s the goal of their campaigns — not to destroy us; they are out to get us to respond in such a way that the world will condemn us. It’s a very clever military tactic serving a diplomatic and legal strategy.”
BDS and Islamic State actually have something in common, Oren asserted. Both are physical organizations that can be fought in a straightforward manner. But behind these groups stands a powerful idea that is much harder to combat. “Any idea you have to fight with a better idea,” he said, and Israel has yet to find the right recipe for that battle.
“Not only have we not been fighting the idea. We’re not even in that war yet,” he said...
