Doubtless it's obvious after that recommendation and seeing my rating, that I take issue with the author's politics. If you share this interest, you will probably like the same things about it that I did. For these reasons alone, the book is recommendable. I'm becoming a fan of political autobiographies, and this one has interesting insight into the work of an ambassador. The book is very well-written (he notes early on that writing, even when struggling in school as a child was one of his strengths) and I enjoyed his anecdotes about political work. Oren's voice is perfectly clear, understandable, and even if inadvertently (but always of big importance to me) still retains its clarity and emotion when playing at 1.25x or even 1.5x speed. I like audiobooks narrated by the author, and this one was very well done, other than some retakes (I assume) where his volume and tone suddenly would change for a sentence or two.
Snarky joke of a headline out of the way, I'll open this review with some praise for this book. In this fast-paced book, Oren interweaves the story of his personal journey with behind-the-scenes accounts of fateful meetings between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu, high-stakes summits with the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, and diplomatic crises that intensified the controversy surrounding the world's most contested strip of land. No one could have been better suited to strengthen bridges between the United States and Israel than Michael Oren - a man equally at home jumping out of a plane as an Israeli paratrooper and discussing Middle East history on TV's Sunday morning political shows. On more than one occasion, the friendship's very fabric seemed close to unraveling.Īlly is the story of that enduring alliance - and of its divides - written from the perspective of a man who treasures his American identity while proudly serving the Jewish State he has come to call home. Forged in the Truman administration, America's alliance with Israel was subjected to enormous strains, and its future was questioned by commentators in both countries. During Oren's tenure in office, Israel and America grappled with the Palestinian peace process, the Arab Spring, and existential threats to Israel posed by international terrorism and the Iranian nuclear program. An American by birth and a historian by training, Oren arrived at his diplomatic post just as Benjamin Netanyahu, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton assumed office. Michael Oren served as the Israeli ambassador to the United States from 2009 to 2013.
Oren's memoir of his time as Israel's ambassador to the United States - a period of transformative change for America and a time of violent upheaval throughout the Middle East - provides a frank, fascinating look inside the special relationship between America and its closest ally in the region. New York Times best-selling author Michael B.
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