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June 26, 2009

Two presidents, two very different speeches, two very different men

Topics: Political News and commentaries

Rick Richman writes at Commentary of Seth Lipsky's re-reading of George W. Bush's Address to the Knesset a year ago on the 60th anniversary of the re-creation of Israel. As Richman suggests in his post, Lipsky clearly found a much different view of Israel than the one in Barack Obama's Cairo speech, and believes it is one that "will stand as a measure for those who follow him as America's tribune."

The difference in tone and substance between Bush's speech to the Knesset and Obama's definitively pro-Muslim Cairo speech are striking, and speak loudly to the ideological and policy differences between the two presidents:

Bush's Lesson for Obama
One president's Knesset address, and how the other's Cairo speech compares

[...] Bush spoke on May 15, 2008. He began by quoting Ben Gurion's proclamation, declaring that Israel possessed a "natural right of the Jewish people to be masters of their own fate." The president of the United States called it "the redemption of an ancient promise given to Abraham and Moses and David-a homeland for the chosen people: Eretz Yisrael." He recalled how America recognized the Jewish state 11 minutes after the declaration. He characterized the "alliance between our governments" as "unbreakable" but he asserted that the "source of our friendship runs deeper than any treaty." He spoke of the "bonds of the Book" and the "ties of the soul."

The president recalled that when William Bradford stepped off the Mayflower, he quoted the words of Jeremiah: "Come let us declare in Zion the word of God." He spoke of how the founders of America "saw a new promised land" and gave their towns names like Bethlehem and New Canaan. His words were those of a man who has read and thought about how the idea of Israel was intertwined with the idea of America going back to James Madison, say, or Samuel Adams and of why, as he put it to the Knesset, "many Americans became passionate advocates for a Jewish state."

Bush also spoke of the "suffering and sacrifice [that] would pass before the dream was fulfilled." He spoke of the "soulless men" who perpetrated the Holocaust, and he quoted Elie Wiesel. He described the joyous tears of a "fearless woman raised in Wisconsin," Golda Meir, when the dream of a state was fulfilled. He spoke of touching the Western Wall, seeing the sun reflected in the Sea of Galilee, of praying at Yad Vashem and visiting Masada and he swore the oath that Israeli soldiers swear: "Masada shall never fall again."

Then the president turned to the principles that guide American policy--"shared convictions," he called them, "rooted in moral clarity and un-swayed by popularity polls or the shifting opinions of international elites." That led to an articulation of democracy as "the only way to ensure human rights," and he spoke of how the United Nations has singled out Israel as a target of its human rights resolutions and declared that Americans consider it "a source of shame."

He expressed the belief that George Washington had spoken of more than two centuries previously--that, as Mr. Bush put it, "religious liberty is fundamental to a civilized society." He declared that Americans "condemn anti-Semitism in all forms--whether by those who openly question Israel's right to exist, or by others who quietly excuse them." He disputed that terrorists acting in the name of religion are religious men. "No one who prays to the God of Abraham could strap a suicide vest to an innocent child, or blow up guiltless guests at a Passover Seder, or fly planes into office buildings filled with unsuspecting workers," he said. "They accept no God before themselves."

Continue reading: Bush's Lesson for Obama

As Richman also suggests, it is indeed worth reading in its entirety. He writes that Lipsky's piece caused him to re-read this post about it, and "Amos Oz's remarkable evocation of a moment beyond human words."

Image credit: International Business Times

Posted by Richard at June 26, 2009 6:37 AM

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