Yom Ha'atzmaut

On Sunday Israel turned 63, and I celebrated with a Middle Eastern food lunch feast--falafel, pita, hummous, and a mediteranean salad.
It is a rare story when a people regain their land 3,000 years after they possessed it, and while there was an active Zionist movement afoot in the early 20th century, when it became increasingly uncool for European countries to continue to have a colonial presence around the world and that put Palestine up for grabs. That didn't fly until after WWII, when in the wake of Hitler's attempts to eliminate Jews from Europe (and he quite successfully eliminated them from a number of countries where they had once flourished) the momentum was gained to establish a Jewish homeland. So while Jews make up less than 2% of the world population, there is a place that you can go and be surrounded by Jews. Holidays like Yom Ha'atzmaut are national holidays, not just days that you take off but no one you work with understands why.
The Middle East is astir this spring with democratic fever, while Israel remains the longest standing and most stable democracy in the region. Will participation in government help gain tolerance? Will Egypt opening up it's border with Gaza help or hurt the Israelis? Will it help or hurt the Palestinians? Time will tell, but in the meantime, chag sameach and pass the falafel.