Israel Matzav: An exchange of emails well worth reading

Friday, May 16, 2014

An exchange of emails well worth reading

Michael Oren and David Rothkopf were college roommates at Columbia around the time that I was there. Although both went into international politics, their lives took very different directions. Oren has just finished a term as Israel's ambassador to the United States. Rothkopf is editor in chief of Foreign Policy magazine.

Although he considers himself a Zionist, Rothkopf only visited Israel for the first time in late 2013. This exchange of emails resulted from Oren asking Rothkopf what he thought about his visit. You should definitely read the whole thing. It's way too long to start excerpting. Oren tells Rothkopf to get rid of his idealized conception and to start looking at Israel as a real country with real people. When I did that 35 years ago, I decided to make aliya.

Labels: Michael Oren, personal stuff, US-Israel relationship

1 Comments:

At 9:20 PM, Judith Lown said...: This is valuable for many reasons, not the least of which that it finally showed me that "narrative" is more real to the post-modern mind than facts are.

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Name: Carl in Jerusalem

Location: Jerusalem, Israel

I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com

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