A Few Minutes with… Michael Oren

And then there are the diplomatic and legal arenas. Post-October 7 sympathy across much of the Western world has given way to a legal war waged against Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC), where Israel has been respectively ordered to end its war, and the chief prosecutor has sought arrest warrants for Bibi Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Adding to the sense of encirclement is the fact that some European countries have moved to recognize a State of Palestine — a mark of the antipathy to Israel now rife across left-wing leaders everywhere.

What’s next for a beleaguered Israel as it faces so many active fronts? What tools does the country have to break out of its encirclement? And what role has the Biden administration played in the unfolding crisis? Few are better placed than Michael Oren — former Israeli Ambassador to the United States, Middle East historian, and politician — to provide a diplomatic tour d’horizon.

Let’s start with the recognition of Palestine last week by Ireland, Norway, and Spain. In a sense, these are the usual suspects — left-leaning countries that have long been pro-Palestinian, so how significant is the move, and could it snowball into something bigger?

There are 143 countries that have already recognized Palestine, so it’s not new. But what this move does is create another legal situation for Israel. Before, we were merely “occupying” an area that never belonged to another state, because the West Bank never belonged to another state legally. That’s one legal situation. But if it’s a state occupying another sovereign state, that creates a greater difficulty. It gives the Palestinians further opportunities to boycott and sanction us.