By Larry Gordon
OTB—that’s Oren, Trump, and Bibi. These folks apparently know how to make news. They seem to have figured out exactly how to manipulate the American and indeed the world media to their advantage.
As you know, Michael Oren, Israel’s former ambassador to the United States, is currently a member of the Knesset. Donald Trump is—well, he’s Donald Trump; there isn’t too much more that has to be said. And Bibi, of course, is Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Today the three have something very much in common: They have spoken uncompromising truths that have unsettled and even shocked many in this country. So here is an interesting dynamic in how to promote yourself, your book, or your overall agenda—tell it like it is and then be widely condemned. The pressure might be a little much, but the publicity it generates is priceless.
Donald Trump
Oren’s book, Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide, has been excerpted in leading publications and book sales are brisk. The key to his success was his truth-telling which highlighted the deliberate tension created by the Obama administration so as to create a schism and build a wedge between the U.S. and Israel.
Listening to the president speak convincingly and repeatedly about how he has Israel’s back, one can easily wonder where Oren is coming from when suggesting that the president was hoping to create significant daylight between the U.S. and Israel.
Benjamin Netanyahu with John Kerry in July 2014
Oren represented Israel well in the U.S. during his service as ambassador. He obviously knew the Obama agenda, but worked his way around it. A recent story related to me off the record by an official who served in the Bush administration tells the story best. The former official was supposed to appear on a news network together with Ambassador Oren. Mr. Oren, however, refused to appear, and this left the other fellow puzzled. Why did his good friend and likeminded colleague not want to appear with him on a popular news program? It wasn’t until several weeks later when they encountered one another at a social event that the former Bush official asked the ambassador why he had demurred. “Look,” Ambassador Oren said. “You are going to castigate and ridicule President Obama on the program, and that is going to force me into defending the president, and I don’t want to do that.”
Michael Oren
For now, Ambassador Oren has been roundly criticized for his outspokenness and frankness. His colleagues in Israel have in some cases disagreed about his impression of the Obama foreign policy and in particular its stance on U.S.–Israel relations. Mr. Oren has written that in his estimation, Mr. Obama is committed to a worldview that seeks to downgrade relations with Israel so as to cultivate and advance relations with Muslim countries—and Iran in particular.
Of course that is Mr. Obama’s prerogative. The issue, however, is that the president, while indulging in this course of action, insists that he is the best friend Israel has ever had in the White House. Mr. Oren, after almost five years as ambassador in Washington, does not see it that way and does not agree.
It seems that bucking the natural narrative of the establishment upsets things for many, but at the same time seems to be the fabric of what the news media is made of and even seems to crave.
Take the matter of Mr. Trump. He is an announced candidate—for now, anyway—in a crowded field of Republican hopefuls for the office of President of the United States. Like him or dislike him, say what you want about Donald Trump, the key here is that the other presidential hopefuls can only wish to attract this kind of media attention.
Perhaps Trump goes a little too far in the way that he criticizes journalists who either don’t take him seriously or are just uncomfortable with his brash style, which has been and will always be his way of doing things. On the other hand, however, it can be argued that some of Mr. Obama’s positions and statements over the tenure of his presidency have been more outrageous than those of Mr. Trump. This includes his behavior after American citizens were beheaded by ISIS, when Syria’s Bashar Assad used chemical weapons to kill his country’s own people, and the sloppy and even irresponsible way he has conducted his relationship with Prime Minister Netanyahu.
While Mr. Obama has not yet indulged in name-calling in the spirit of The Donald, most of the media hasn’t handled Obama the same way they have so far handled Trump. I heard one journalist refer to the Trump candidacy as “a sideshow,” and another call Mr. Trump “a clown.” Even journalists on Fox News, who almost across the board believe that the Obama presidency is leading this country into a disaster, couch their criticism in mostly respectful terms.
If Barack Obama could become president after scant governing experience, why can’t a public personality and a fantastically successful businessman like Donald Trump also be president of this country? Trump’s mantra is about his desire to make this country great again. We need that, and it can be done, but we need the proper type of leadership. President Obama speaks often about downgrading (instead of defeating) ISIS, but instead the only thing being downgraded in the view of the world is the image of the United States. So even if Mr. Trump comes across as a bit outrageous, haven’t you also been outraged by aspects of the Obama presidency?
Which brings us to the target of a good deal of Mr. Obama’s outrageousness—Bibi Netanyahu and Israel. No, it’s not a manifestation of anti-Semitism. It is just that Barack Obama—as Michael Oren says in his book—has a different worldview than many of us. He likes Israel and the Jewish people; he just believes that he knows better than anyone else what we need and what the best way to move forward on the world stage is.
He said a long time ago that one does not need to be a supporter of Bibi Netanyahu in order to be considered a friend of Israel and the Jewish people. The only thing is that Mr. Netanyahu is the elected leader of 7 million Jews in the state of Israel. So arguing against that reality is a little weak. I know you are thinking that there were not 7 million people who voted for Bibi, but that’s the way a democracy works.
In any event, Bibi—like Mr. Oren and Mr. Trump—knows how to get worldwide media attention in an instant. And it’s not necessarily the art of manipulation at play. Rather, it’s the truths they tell. For Mr. Oren it is the agenda of the Obama administration. For Donald Trump, it is (at the moment) about the dangers posed by undocumented immigrants allowed through our very porous southern border. And for Bibi, it’s about being the man who tells the uncomfortable and inconvenient truth about Iran’s nuclear and terrorist designs.
It’s a good thing the media love these stories. They need to be told.
Comments for Larry Gordon are welcome at editor@5tjt.com.