Video and Transcript: President Obama’s "Independence Day" Address

President Barack Obama’s 4th of July speech was not just a matter of celebration but also a subtly-prepared message to confront domestic and overseas challenges:

Meeting these extraordinary challenges will require an extraordinary effort on the part of every American. And that is an effort we cannot defer any longer.

We are not a people who fear the future. We are a people who make it. And on this July 4th, we need to summon that spirit once more. We need to summon the same spirit that inhabited Independence Hall two hundred and thirty-three years ago today.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPcTv7EZWzo[/youtube]

Once more, it is the notion of “American Exceptionalism” that is in the spotlight. For Obama, it was Americans who gained their independence from a powerful empire and brought democracy and freedom to the world. The very same spirit is to be expected from the descendants of freedom fighters.

It is black and white: on the one hand there are “good” Americans and on the other hand there are “bad” guys in Afghanistan and Iraq and even in America, where some want to put obstacles in front of new reforms. These people do not have that spirit of their forefathers....

OBAMA:

Hello and Happy Fourth of July, everybody. This weekend is a time to get together with family and friends, kick back, and enjoy a little time off. And I hope that’s exactly what all of you do. But I also want to take a moment today to reflect on what I believe is the meaning of this distinctly American holiday.

Today, we are called to remember not only the day our country was born – we are also called to remember the indomitable spirit of the first American citizens who made that day possible.

We are called to remember how unlikely it was that our American experiment would succeed at all; that a small band of patriots would declare independence from a powerful empire; and that they would form, in the new world, what the old world had never known – a government of, by, and for the people.

That unyielding spirit is what defines us as Americans. It is what led generations of pioneers to blaze a westward trail.

It is what led my grandparents’ generation to persevere in the face of a Depression and triumph in the face of tyranny.

It is what led generations of American workers to build an industrial economy unrivalled around the world.

It is what has always led us, as a people, not to wilt or cower at a difficult moment, but to face down any trial and rise to any challenge, understanding that each of us has a hand in writing America’s destiny.

That is the spirit we are called to show once more. We are facing an array of challenges on a scale unseen in our time. We are waging two wars. We are battling a deep recession. And our economy – and our nation itself – are endangered by festering problems we have kicked down the road for far too long: spiraling health care costs; inadequate schools; and a dependence on foreign oil.

Meeting these extraordinary challenges will require an extraordinary effort on the part of every American. And that is an effort we cannot defer any longer.

Now is the time to lay a new foundation for growth and prosperity. Now is the time to revamp our education system, demand more from teachers, parents, and students alike, and build schools that prepare every child in America to outcompete any worker in the world.

Now is the time to reform an unsustainable health care system that is imposing crushing costs on families, businesses, large and small, and state and federal budgets. We need to protect what works, fix what’s broken, and bring down costs for all Americans. No more talk. No more delay. Health care reform must happen this year.

And now is the time to meet our energy challenge – one of the greatest challenges we have ever confronted as a people or as a planet. For the sake of our economy and our children, we must build on the historic bill passed by the House of Representatives, and make clean energy the profitable kind of energy so that we can end our dependence on foreign oil and reclaim America’s future.

These are some of the challenges that our generation has been called to meet. And yet, there are those who would have us try what has already failed; who would defend the status quo. They argue that our health care system is fine the way it is and that a clean energy economy can wait. They say we are trying to do too much, that we are moving too quickly, and that we all ought to just take a deep breath and scale back our goals.

These naysayers have short memories. They forget that we, as a people, did not get here by standing pat in a time of change. We did not get here by doing what was easy. That is not how a cluster of 13 colonies became the United States of America.

We are not a people who fear the future. We are a people who make it. And on this July 4th, we need to summon that spirit once more. We need to summon the same spirit that inhabited Independence Hall two hundred and thirty-three years ago today.

That is how this generation of Americans will make its mark on history. That is how we will make the most of this extraordinary moment. And that is how we will write the next chapter in the great American story. Thank you, and Happy Fourth of July.

Transcript: Benjamin Netanyahu's 4th of July Message for the US (and Iran)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attended a 4th of July celebration at the home of American ambassador to Israel, James Cunningham, on Wednesday and put the notion of “freedom” at the center of his speech. At the same time, he put the positive alongsdie the menace of enemies and threat: “Freedom is our common value which makes our bonds unbreakable and the worst dangerous regimes of the world pursuing dangerous weapons must be stopped for the sake of our common bond: freedom. Otherwise, they will triumph over free societies, and so over our so-called ‘unbreakable’ bonds."

So, if Iran was unmentioned (and, of course, its diplomats had been "disinvited" from US celebrations because of the election crisis), Tehran was there in spirit. Indeed, you might say that it --- and its alleged nuclear weapons programme --- is Netanyahu's glue for the US-Israeli "unbreakable" bonds.

The transcript of Netanyahu’s speech:

In the year 1776, the world witnessed a new birth of freedom, the birth of the United States of America. The United States, the country that was referred to by its founders as the new Promised Land, the new Zion, became the bastion, defender and champion of freedom. The U.S. was a bastion of freedom in the 19th century as many millions of immigrants flocked to its inviting shores to search for a new life, to search for freedom. Etched on the base of the Statue of Liberty, the immortal words of Emma Lazarus, the American Jewish poet, who was incidentally a Zionist, said it all. They came “yearning to be free”.

The United States was a defender of freedom in the 20th century as it confronted and defeated history’s greatest tyrannies, and above all else, the Nazi tyranny. And over the last 233 years, the United States has been freedom’s greatest champion, all the while insisting that freedom is not something that only a privileged few countries can enjoy, but the birthright of every nation and every people. It’s not surprising therefore that our own birth of freedom would resonate so powerfully with the American people. After all, this was the reemergence of the Jews as a free and independent nation in our ancestral homeland, in the original Promised Land, the original Zion. This was why it took President Harry S. Truman only eleven minutes to recognize the newly born Jewish state, and this is why every American president since then, has expressed the deep friendship between our two countries, a friendship anchored not in transitory interests, but in eternal values and timeless ideals. And these common ideals of liberty and democracy, are the foundation of the deep and enduring bond between the United States and Israel, a bond that President Obama recently declared was unbreakable in his landmark speech in Cairo before the entire Muslim world.

In Israel evidence of this unbreakable bond is here for everyone to see. You can see it as you walk down the streets of Jerusalem, streets named after Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. You can see it if you visit the memorial to the slain U.S. President, John F. Kennedy in the outskirts of Jerusalem. You can see it in the agonized faces of Israelis who shared grief and sorrow with the American people in the terrible events of September 11th. You can see it in the smiling and admiring faces of Israelis every time the United States has an achievement or a success around the world and you can see it Mr. Ambassador, in the faces of all the people who came here to celebrate with you tonight.

So as the Prime Minister of one of the world’s most passionate democracies, let me say that we share a common heritage with the world’s greatest democracy. Throughout history, democracies have ultimately proven more powerful and more resilient than the dictatorships that threaten them. Eventually, the will of free people to defend their values and defend their societies proves unconquerable. Eventually, the will of un-free people to become free and live under democratic societies usually breaks through the concrete of tyranny. But the greatest danger facing our world today is that this historical consistency of the triumph and spread of democracy could change if the world’s worst regimes acquire the world’s more dangerous weapons. For the sake of peace, for the sake of our common security, for the sake of our common values, this must not be allowed to happen.

So Mr. Ambassador, as we celebrate your Independence Day with you, let us reaffirm our commitment to those powerful ideas that were promulgated two hundred and thirty three years ago, and later in Philadelphia, and that are so deeply shared by our two peoples. Let us reaffirm our commitment to roll back those who threaten our lives and our freedoms and let us reaffirm our commitment to advance the cause of peace in our region and throughout the world.

On behalf of the People of Israel, I send our best wishes to President Obama and to the American People. Happy Independence Day America and may God continue to bless America and our profound friendship. Chag Sameach. Thank you.