Mahmoud Abbas' (Abu Mazen) speech at the UN in September 2011 is a classic example of speaking in front of a supportive and sympathetic audience while mobilizing their support and making a minimal attempt to convince them. In the article Ladies and Gentlemen, At the outset, I wish to extend my congratulations to …
One thing is common to the two speeches given this week at the UN by Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen): neither of them spoke to the other side. Both of them spoke as representing their people to the world public opinion, and neither of them bothered at all...
Steve Jobs, who passed away on Friday, is considered one of the greatest speakers in the computing world and perhaps in the business world in general. A story about him having a supernatural power to create a "reality distortion field" that anyone who enters is automatically convinced of the greatness of his products. In another article I dealt with presentation techniques...
Bibi gives an instructive lesson in how to speak to one audience - the UN General Assembly, and actually target a completely different audience - the voters in Israel and the Likud center, American public opinion, and Obama's pollsters. This is a very dangerous strategy, but Netanyahu had little to lose and a lot to gain,...
On January 20, 2009, on a cold and historic winter day, Barack Obama was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States. Like previous presidents he also gave his most important speech, possibly the most important speech of his life. This speech is the brainchild of one of the speakers...
When we come to analyze a speech, especially a masterpiece like the historic speech of the American president at Cairo University (the only academic institution in the Arab world ranked among the top 1,000 universities in the world, by the way) we need to see the goals that the speaker set for himself, and then examine the way...
When we come to analyze a speech, especially a masterpiece like the historic speech of the American president at Cairo University (the only academic institution in the Arab world ranked among the top 1,000 universities in the world, by the way) we need to see the goals that the speaker set for himself, and then examine the way...
When we come to analyze a speech, especially a masterpiece like the historic speech of the American president at Cairo University (the only academic institution in the Arab world ranked among the top 1,000 universities in the world, by the way) we need to see the goals that the speaker set for himself, and then examine the way...
Menachem Begin's speech in Kings of Israel Square on the eve of the 1981 elections is a classic example of a contradictory speech. The speech ignited party activists and brought great motivation in the last two days of the elections, and helped Likud achieve a narrow majority. A rhetorical analysis of Begin reacting to a speech given in Arab square...
One of John Kennedy's great speeches was presented in West Berlin on a bright summer day in late June 1962. The young president arrives in divided and besieged Berlin and delivers a speech to its residents about their situation and their rights. Kennedy uses a well-known and effective technique of understatement to strengthen...
Many of the articles about Barack Obama and the change of power between him and George Bush include a comparison with Roosevelt's entry into office in 1933. Even then, the United States and the world were in the midst of a deep economic crisis and the incumbent president (Republican Hoover) seemed powerless. Like today, even then...
The importance of the speech in the first years of the establishment of the state on its part served as a symbol and role model for the Zionist movement. The willingness to fight to the bitter end against endless odds for personal and national freedom touched very deep veins in a generation that personally knew the heroes of Tel Hai, the Warsaw Ghetto...
The annual memorial service for Yitzhak Rabin is the moment when we stop a little, remember Rabin the man, the leader. And we also look at ourselves, at Israeli society, at its leadership, at the state of the national mood, at the state of the peace process. From our place as private individuals, in front of the great national processes. Not easy …
How you have felt, O men of Athens, at hearing the speeches of my accusers, I cannot tell; but I know that their persuasive words almost made me forget who I was - such was the effect of them; and …
Yitzhak Rabin's speech was delivered at the Mount Scopus campus of the Hebrew University immediately after the end of the Six Day War and was its concluding message. The event of the speech was the awarding of an honorary doctorate to Rabin on behalf of the Hebrew University as the representative of the army in the war. To a large extent constituted…
The Jewish people arose in the Land of Israel, where their spiritual, religious and political image was shaped, where they lived the life of a state commune, where they created national and all-human cultural assets and bequeathed to the entire world the eternal book of books. After the people were exiled from their country by force of arms, they kept their allegiance to it in all the lands of their dispersion,...
Vice President Johnson, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chief Justice, President Eisenhower, Vice President Nixon, President Truman, reverend clergy, fellow citizens, we observe today not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom—symbolizing an end, as well as a beginning—signifying renewal, …
One of the worst speeches ever made, which caused the speaker much more harm than good, and which is simply a bad speech. The problems with the speech are that it is: too long, too messy, too belligerent, does not answer the fundamental question, ladies and gentlemen, for the past six months and more, my family, myself and my friends, in Israel...
The importance of the speech They tell about Winston Churchill, who was once asked how long it would take him to write a ten-minute speech. "About two weeks" he replied. really? And how long will it take him to prepare a one-hour speech? "Probably a week." So then, the questioner was confused, how long will it take...
I am happy to join you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand...
The importance of the speech in the first years of the establishment of the state on its part served as a symbol and role model for the Zionist movement. The willingness to fight to the bitter end against endless odds for personal and national freedom touched very deep veins in a generation that personally knew the heroes of Tel Hai, the Warsaw Ghetto...
The importance of the speech Sometimes the speech determines the size of the hour, and sometimes the time determines the size of the speech. There was nothing special about the date chosen for Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech - but the speech made the day unforgettable. And vice versa,…
Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Dick Durbin. You make us all proud Tonight is a particular honor for me because, let's face it, …
David's Lamentation gained a strong reputation among the gay community as David's gay-erotic confession about his fallen friend Jonathan. Although much of the theory stems from ignorance (the phrase "the beloved and pleasant", for example, does not refer to the relationship between David and Jonathan at all, it actually speaks of Jonathan and his father Shaul) there is no...
In 1956 Moshe Dayan delivers a eulogy for a member of Kibbutz Nahal Oz ('Gaza Encirclement') who was murdered by infiltrators from Gaza. In today's terms, this is a speech in a slightly high language, but at the time it was considered very direct, very simple, and an example of the new Hebrew of the age. Politically, in a speech...
Rhetoric is often defined as the art of speech and persuasion. According to a classic definition, this is an artistic activity that aims to derive aesthetic pleasure from speaking in front of the audience, its excitement and its persuasion. Nowadays, it is more common to see rhetoric as art rather than art (craft vs. art), that is, a collection of tools and techniques that allow...
Julius Caesar" is one of William Shakespeare's historical dramas (along with Hamlet Macbeth and others, but less tragic than them) and one of the dramatic climaxes of the play takes place immediately after the murder of Julius Caesar - the Roman crowd gathers and demands explanations for the murder. Two brilliant speakers stand up...
"Julius Caesar" is one of William Shakespeare's historical dramas (along with Hamlet Macbeth and others, but less tragic than them) and one of the dramatic climaxes of the play takes place immediately after the murder of Julius Caesar - the Roman crowd gathers and demands explanations for the murder. Two brilliant speakers stand up...
Universities usually invite intellectual and practical people to speak at the graduation ceremony of their students, and American universities try to make those speakers well-known and famous. Sometimes the result is rhetorical masterpieces like Harry Potter creator JK Rowling's Harvard graduation speech. Rowling opens…
"Julius Caesar" is one of Shakespeare's historical dramas and the speeches of Brutus and Antony are perhaps the pinnacle of William Shakespeare's political rhetoric. And one of the dramatic climaxes of the play takes place immediately after the murder of Julius Caesar - the Hormai crowd gathers and demands explanations for the murder. Crimson …
The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin on November 4, 1995 not only caused enormous damage to democracy and Israel's chances of integrating into the regional space, but also caused an outburst of sadness and grief that greatly affected anyone who came to mourn him (except, apparently, Ezer Weizmann). As an audience, the obituary…