Ally ─ My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide

New York Times bestselling author 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.

Praise for Michael B. Oren

Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East

“Powerful . . . a highly readable, even gripping account . . . [Oren] has woven a seamless narrative out of a staggering variety of diplomatic and military strands.”—The New York Times

“With a remarkably assured style, Oren elucidates nearly every aspect of the conflict. . . . Oren’s [book] will remain the authoritative chronicle of the war. His achievement as a writer and a historian is awesome.”—The Atlantic Monthly

Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present

“When a brilliant, lucid historian such as Michael B. Oren [brings] the past back to life . . . it is a shaft of light in a dark sky.”—The Washington Post Book World

“Hugely ambitious, drawing on hundreds of original sources to create a finely balanced overview of this enormously complex subject.”—The New York Times Book Review

Michael B. Oren is an American-born Israeli historian and author, and was Israel’s ambassador to the United States from 2009 to 2013. He has written twoNew York Times bestsellers—Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present andSix Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East, which won theLos Angeles Times Book Prize for history and the National Jewish Book Award. Throughout his illustrious career as a Middle East scholar, Dr. Oren has been a distinguished fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem, a contributing editor toThe New Republic, and a visiting professor at Harvard, Yale, and Georgetown.The Forward named Oren one of the five most influential American Jews, andThe Jerusalem Post listed him as one of the world’s ten most influential Jews. He currently lives with his family in Tel Aviv. He is a member of the Knesset and serves on its Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.