Michael Oren, Israeli Ambassador to the United States, came to Dickinson College on Thursday, March 29. His speech “Foreign Policy: Israel the Ultimate Ally” was scheduled to begin at 12:00 p.m. in the Rubendall Recital Hall, but the Rubendall auditorium was filled by 11:40. Student overflow was sent upstairs to Weiss 235 and Althouse 106 where attendees could watch as the Clarke Forum streamed the event live.

Oren began his speech, about ten minutes late, with a few vignettes about the life of an ambassador. The short stories culminated with a trip to The New Jerusalem African American Baptist Church where the ambassador is enthusiastically welcomed. “How do we explain this?” he asked rhetorically.

The answer, Oren explained, is a bond with the U.S. that has three pillars: spirituality, democracy and strategy.

The first pillar stems back to the day the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, fleeing from British religious persecution. He related this scene to that of Moses leading the Jews from Egypt, asserting that the similarities between both events resonated deeply within the Founding Fathers. In fact, he added, when the new United States first looked for a symbol to represent itself with, the Fathers considered using the image of Moses and the Jews. Instead, he said, the “follicly challenged bird” won.

Oren continued by saying, “Democracy creates an immense bond between Israel and America.” He cited equality of all races and ethnicities as well as gender and sexuality. “Israel is the only functioning and functional democracy race in the Middle East,” Oren asserted.

Oren’s final aspect of the bond was strategy. He claimed that together, the US and Israel have developed the most advanced ballistic missile systems, embarked on humanitarian efforts in Japan and Haiti and shared medical advances. Though the allies do not always agree—such as tactical aspects of peace or Israeli policies on settlement and Jerusalem—they still remain close. “Israel is pro-American without reservation. There’s no substitute for that kind of ally.”

Finally, Oren talked about the “burgeoning commercial relationship” between the U.S. and Israel. Israel is currently America’s twelfth largest customer and has invested $80 billion into American companies In conclusion Oren stated that, “I can only assure you that there is not a country in the world that enjoys a deeper and more multifaceted relationship with the United States than Israel.”