Parenting & Family Quote by John F. Kennedy

Kennedy writes here like a wartime ally speaking to a young state that still feels provisional, surrounded, and contested. The opening refuses the idea that Israel is an accident of history or a temporary refuge: "not created in order to disappear" turns existence into a moral claim, not merely a geopolitical fact. It is also an American reassurance disguised as praise: Washington sees you, and Washington is betting on your permanence.

The phrasing is classic Cold War rhetoric, engineered to fuse Israel's legitimacy to the West's self-image. "Child of hope" borrows the language of national mythmaking; "home of the brave" deliberately echoes the U.S. anthem, subtly yoking Israeli endurance to American civic religion. That linkage is the point. By wrapping Israel in familiar American virtues, Kennedy sells solidarity to a domestic audience without naming the messier realities of borders, refugees, or regional power.

The most revealing line is the double bind: Israel "can neither be broken by adversity nor demoralized by success". Adversity is the expected script; success is the warning label. Kennedy is signaling that triumph must not curdle into hubris or repression. It's a compliment with a leash attached.

"Shield of democracy" and "sword of freedom" do heavy lifting, turning military strength into a protective moral instrument. The subtext is strategic: Israel is framed as a democratic outpost whose force is, by definition, freedom's force. In the early 1960s, that argument wasn't poetic decoration; it was a way to justify alliance, arms, and diplomatic cover while keeping the story clean enough to travel.