Perspectives

Here, we will help you put Barack Obama’s remarks to the people of Israel into perspective. Initially, we will give you a few ideas of how to put the speech into perspective in connection to US-Israel relatio…

...

Current issues

As Barack Obama’s speech was delivered on the 21st of March, 2013, it might be a good idea to look at whether the plans he presented have materialized or not since then.

An important part of Barack Obama’s foreign policy was achieving a peace deal between Israel and Palestine, particularly by supporting the two-state solution. A few days before Obama delivered his speech, a strategic partnership was adopted. In 2016, despite the alliance between the two countries, President Obama gained the disapproval of Israeli officals. This happened because the US abstained from voting in the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, which deemed Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories as illegal and as a violation of international law. The future presiden…

...

Textual perspective

You might want to compare Obama’s speech with the speech “Ich bin ein Berliner”, delivered by John Fitzgerald Kennedy on the 26th of June, 1963 in West Berlin. At that time, Kennedy was the 35th President of the US.

When you compare the two speeches, an interesting element you might want to consider is the use of lines spoken in the language of the nation being addressed. Kennedy speaks in German when he states “Ich bin ein Berliner” (“I am a Berliner”) and when he …