NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - Includes a new afterword about the
Iran nuclear agreement, the 2016 presidential race, and the future of
the U.S.-Israel alliance
Michael B. 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.
Michael Oren served as the Israeli ambassador to the United States from
2009 to 2013. 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. 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. 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. On more than one occasion, the friendship's very fabric
seemed close to unraveling.
Ally 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. 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. In the pages
of 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.
A quintessentially American story of a young man who refused to
relinquish a dream--irrespective of the obstacles--and an inherently
Israeli story about assuming onerous responsibilities, Ally is at once
a record, a chronicle, and a confession. And it is a story about
love--about someone fortunate enough to love two countries and to
represent one to the other. But, above all, this memoir is a testament
to an alliance that was and will remain vital for Americans, Israelis,
and the world.
