Commentary: Israeli know-how.

Byline: ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE

WASHINGTON, July 7 (UPI) -- He speaks like an American, looks like an American, and acts like an American -- because he is an American. He is Israel's new ambassador to the United States, a citizen of both countries. Michael B. Oren (born Michael Bornstein), 54, went to Israel for the first time at 15 to work on a kibbutz, the collective farms that were once recruitment grounds for Israel's ace fighter pilots. He returned to the United States to complete a master's in International Affairs at Columbia University and a Ph.D. in Near East Studies at Princeton. He then went back to Israel, became a citizen and served as a paratrooper in the Israel Defense Forces in the 1982 Lebanon War. In the 1991 Gulf War he was the sole Israeli liaison officer to the U.S. 6th Fleet. In the Lebanese border war with Hezbollah in 2006, Oren was the military voice of Israel.

A prolific writer, Mike Oren's "Power, Faith and Fantasy," a history of U.S. involvement in the Middle East, was a New York Times bestseller in 2007. His "Six Days of War" on Israel's most dramatic victory in 1967 was one of scores of books written about that conflict, and critics said it's likely to remain the best.

Today, Ambassador Oren is one of more than 100,000 Israelis who enjoy dual citizenship with the United States. His new job is to ensure that little if any daylight passes between U.S. and Israeli positions on the perennial Palestinian-Israeli issue and on what most Israelis regard as the coming existential threat of Iran's nuclear weapons.

Clearly, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his coalition government are determined to stand fast on Jewish settlements in the West Bank pending resolution of Iran's nuclear ambitions, either through sanctions-driven diplomacy or military action. President Obama faces a dire financial and economic situation for at least another year, and is not about to favor a third war after Iraq and Afghanistan/Pakistan. If bombing it is, Israel will be on its own.

A powerful U.S. ally came aboard Israel's existential threat vessel when Vice President Joe Biden said this past weekend the Obama administration would not stand in the way if Israel chose to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. National Security Council sources said Obama was not too pleased with what many quickly interpreted as a White House green light. If Israel should opt for unilateral action against Iran -- by air via Turkey or over Iraqi and/or Saudi airspace, and by sea with submarine-launched cruise missiles from the Gulf of Oman -- there is no leader in the Middle East, or anywhere else in the world, who would believe this was organized and executed without at least a wink and a nod from POTUS.

The exchange that led to Biden's latest lapsus linguae, to which he is prone, was in answer to ABC's "This Week" when he was asked whether Netanyahu was taking the right approach by indicating that Israel would take matters into its own hands if Iran did not show a willingness to negotiate by year's end. "Look," he said, "Israel can determine for itself -- it's a sovereign nation -- what's in their ...