Thursday, March 5, 2015

In the Shadow of FDR, Netanyahu Preaches a Politics of Fear (from @Truthdig)

In the Shadow of FDR, Netanyahu Preaches a Politics of Fear (from @Truthdig)

1 comment:

Tim Nolan said...

On March 4, 1933, in his first inaugural address, Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered a message of hope to a troubled, disillusioned and divided nation.

Standing stoically behind a lectern on the East Portico of the Capitol, his legs withered by polio, the new president urged his listeners not to “shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today” that had been wrought by the “outworn” traditions of a “false leadership” but to look forward to bold new initiatives that promised revival and shared prosperity. Above all, he urged them not to despair, famously declaring that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

On Tuesday morning, 82 years minus a day from FDR’s oration, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered nearly the opposite message before a joint session of Congress assembled in the ornate House chamber of the Capitol.