Ambassador Oren?

Georgetown professor and former Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson Michael Oren is a frontrunner to fill the post of Israeli Ambassador to the US, according to the Jerusalem Post.

A close associate [of Oren's] told The Jerusalem Posthe understood the American-raised historian to be “among the leading candidates” for the ambassadorship.

“He has not received any formal offer. If he received that offer, he would be very honored to serve, and he would serve just as he has served when he has been called into miluim [reserve duty].”

Oren joined the Georgetown faculty last year as a visiting professor with the Program for Jewish Civilization [full disclosure: I'm a PJC minor]. This year he taught courses on “America in the Middle East since 1776″ and “Military History: the Modern Middle East.”

Oren’s chief competition for the spot, according to the Post, is Dore Gold, President of the Jersualem Center for Public Affairs and former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations. Gold is also familiar to Georgetown students, as he came to campus as a participant in the Doha Debates last month.

Photo from the PJC website.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 11:02 am and is filed under News, Vox Populi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.