She may be a bit creaky in the bones, have occasional memory problems, and be a bit crotchety at times, but as Israel turns sixty, the old lady still has some life in her legs. As the nation passed the last day remembering its 22,437 fallen soldiers, police and terror victims, this evening the tears turn to joy as the nation cuts loose and takes to the streets for a country-wide celebration of six decades of independence.
Israel Insider will provide updates throughout the days on the diverse array of festivities and controversies that accompany the old lady's birthday.
As is the Jewish and Israeli way, mourning and joy are intentionally juxtaposed, with Memorial Day -- marked by sirens last evening and this morning -- colliding with the celebrations of Independence day.
Many Israelis visited cemeteries and memorial services throughout the day.
"We sanctify life, not death," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Wednesday during a Mount Herzl ceremony for victims of terror attacks.
"I cannot help but think of how deep the moral gap is between us and our enemies," he said. "We make every possible effort to limit and focus our attacks on the terrorists and we never intentionally harm the innocent. We don't have jihadists, shahidim or mothers who joyfully send their children with bomb belts to blow themselves up in packed buses or in busy malls."
Olmert paid tribute to the bereaved families, saying he felt their great and deep pain. "We will continue our uncompromising fight against terror not only for our policy of achieving peace but as a moral duty to those who lost loved ones," he added, emphasizing, however, that Remembrance Day was "a somber day, not a day of hate."
Olmert told terror victims' families that "we must all remember that the hands of the murderers are directed at all of us. Any of us could be a target, I therefore embrace you with a strengthening and consoling hand."
The prime minister said he "cannot fail to remember" the numerous Jerusalem terror attacks "to which I myself was a witness," and said that Israel "does not negate the right of any people to live in peace." He stressed that there were "serious negotiations" being held with the Palestinian Authority, saying the conflict "in no way lacked a solution" and that "the main principles in order to settle the conflict are not very far away from accomplishment."
"There are leaders among our neighbors that understand this and we are conducting serious dealings with them. Arriving at a peace agreement depends on joining all those who crave peace in the region against the unholy alliance that is sustaining the axis of terror," continued the prime minister.
He said Israel would never give in or negotiate with Hamas because it fights for Israel's destruction and refuses to recognize its right to exist. However, Olmert has been engaging Hamas indirectly for months, often with Egyptian mediation.
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