Israel Mourns Fallen Soldiers, Celebrates 61 Years of Independence
Standing With IsraelIsraelis shifted gears on Tuesday evening from mourning its fallen soldiers to celebrating the nation’s 61st Independence Day.
Opening the official ceremony at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said, “We have come once again to this hill—on one side the grave of the prophet [of Zionism], on the other the graves of our children—to remind ourselves once again from where we came, and where, with the grace of God, with the blood of our children and with the sweat of our brow, we have succeeded in reaching so far.
Rivlin said that moving directly from Remembrance Day to Independence Day is the “purest preparation” for the subsequent joy. Earlier in the week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a memorial gathering to honor slain Israeli soldiers and that the global threat of terror was greater than ever. “We have no choice but to fight terror until it is obliterated and to defend our lives,” he said.