Post by Salem6 on May 8, 2008 9:08:41 GMT
Celebrations are under way across Israel to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state.
Firework displays lit up the sky across Israel after sunset
Israelis thronged Jerusalem's streets as fireworks opened the celebrations on Wednesday, while an aerial display is planned over Tel Aviv on Thursday.
Israel declared itself an independent state on 14 May 1948, three years after the end of World War II and the death of six million Jews in the Holocaust.
But Palestinians know the foundation day as al-Nakba, or "the Catastrophe".
The anniversary is calculated according to the Jewish lunar calendar.
The celebrations began at sunset on Wednesday at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl memorial, named after the founder of modern Zionism, where soldiers raised the Israeli flag from half to full mast amid tight security.
The speaker of parliament, Dalia Itzik, addressed the crowd and expressed her sympathy for the families of those who had died defending Israel since 1948.
"The state of Israel is an unusual success story, a wonder by any historical standard," she added. "There are flaws and we still have things to do, but behind these flaws is a great country."
Fireworks displays later lit up the sky across the country, where tens of thousands of people attended performances by local artists and musicians.
Uncertain future
The BBC's Tim Franks in Jerusalem says Israel has changed dramatically since it was founded, with a population nearly 10 times larger, and a stronger economy and military than its founders could have dreamt of.
However he says it is also a place riven by uncertainty - over its unresolved conflicts with neighbouring Arab countries and the Palestinians, and over the question of whether its own religious, political and ethnic mosaic still fits together.
The state of Israel was proclaimed about six months after the United Nations General Assembly voted to partition what was then Palestine into Jewish and Arab states.
In the war that followed, some 700,000 Palestinians fled or were driven out of their homes.
Palestinians are due to mark the occasion, al-Nakba, on 15 May.
Hopes for peace
The 60 year's of Israel's existence have been marked by conflict, both with its Arab neighbours, and with Palestinians living under occupation.
Mr Olmert's own political future is uncertain
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert spoke of his hopes for future peace, in a speech marking Remembrance Day, when Israelis honour soldiers killed since the state was founded.
"Our conflict has been long indeed," he said.
"However, it is peace, not war that we aspire to and crave."
Israel's existence as a nation, he said, depended on its "willingness and ability" to defend itself, but there was also a "willingness to compromise".
Mr Olmert's political future is being called into question, since he became the centre of a police inquiry. The Israeli courts have imposed a gagging order on reporting the details of the inquiry.
US President George W Bush is due to attend a conference marking the anniversary in Jerusalem next week.
The US president is pushing for a Middle East peace settlement before he leaves office in January, but there has been little visible progress in talks between Israelis and Palestinians.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7389140.stm