Oren

PROVIDENCE — The United States and Israel share a special relationship that traces its roots back to the first American presidents and even the Puritans, who saw themselves as “new Jews” and the New World as “the New Promised Land,” Michael B. Oren, Israeli ambassador to the United States, told a capacity audience at Brown University Tuesday.

The two countries also have their differences and have their share of competing interests — a reality that Oren said he witnessed firsthand this year on his appointment as ambassador.

Oren, an American-born Israeli scholar and historian who gave up his U.S. citizenship to become the Israeli ambassador, said he was surprised when his appointment was followed by a string of warnings from the Israeli prime minister and other high-level officials: You’re taking on a tough job.

The reasons were simple enough, Oren said. There was a new “center-center-left-of-center” administration in Washington and a new “center-center-right-of-center” administration in Israel. There were also differing views — about how to create a Palestinian state, about Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and mostly, over how to deal with a potentially nuclear Iran that was vowing to “wipe Israel off the map.”

“Right off the bat, there was the basis for a certain amount of divergence, if not friction,” he said.

In his first hundred-plus days on the job, Oren said the common interests have overshadowed the differences, helping them find middle ground even as President Obama has tried to establish a dialogue with countries such as Iran.

For while Mr. Obama, in his Cairo speech earlier this year, tried to build inroads with Muslim nations, he also spoke about the right of the Israeli state to exist, bringing that concept “into the heart of the Arab world,” Oren said.

“No American president had ever done that,” he said.

Oren’s talk, arranged by the Consulate General of Israel to New England, drew about 200 to the Hillel House, on the city’s East Side. He spoke for about 27 minutes and then took questions on everything from peace talks with the Palestinians to allegations of Israeli war crimes.

Oren said he sees progress toward Middle East peace. A few decades ago, he said, neighboring countries were talking about how to wipe out Israel. Today, he said, most of them are talking about coexistence.

He said the solution to the Palestinian conflict is to establish a Palestinian state, but he cautioned that not everyone will be happy. Some Jews will be displaced from what they view as their ancestral homeland, and so will some Palestinians, he said.

He defended Israeli’s attack of Hamas on the Gaza Strip late last year, saying Israel suffered attacks from Hamas’ rockets for 3½ years. He also said the reports of alleged war crimes by Israeli soldiers in the conflict have been “checked out and they are false.”

Oren’s audience, mostly students, gave him a warm applause.

redgar@projo.com