Yom HaZikaron and Yom HaAtzmaut: a pairing of days and meaning where one could not exist without the other.

There may not be a more perfect summation on the tangible calendar for the intangible Jewish experience. It is a yin and yang of darkness and light, somberness and celebration, and the past and future, though both are forever reflected in the present. There is a vital importance of recognizing both through grieving the worst pain and celebrating the best joy…remembering death, and then moving on with life.

Though it is difficult to compare memorial and independence days around the world, Israel’s own do simply seem more significant due to a dichotomy of time. On one hand, Israel is less removed in time from instating its sovereignty seventy-eight years ago, while on the other, it was reclaimed from three thousand years prior. And unlike any other nation, it is continually faced with the harsh reminders of the price to keep it, as the singular nation to constantly have its independence questioned, cheapened, and desired to be erased.

Such a profound reality also exposes another glaring dichotomy.

These days fully represent the values and priorities inherent to this state, its people, and its supporters worldwide. Namely, the valuing of life, and the selfless willingness to personally sacrifice in order to preserve a greater collective future with these ideals.

As a result, the opposition of Israel’s detractors couldn’t stand in clearer contrast. Here we have the hypocritical gamut of antizionist arrogance from those who warp their own Memorial Day into one of shopping sales and parties to those who literally fail to allow independence for their own people…the perversely perfect foil of unabashed entitlement to genuine selflessness.

Looking eastward, we have the reigning royalty of authoritarian regimes, full of entitlement to the life and death of both their community and their enemies, who over ancient conquests and modern terror have perfected simultaneously making absurd demands while committing outrageous atrocities.

The surreal entitlement to not only brutally invade a neighboring democracy but steal........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)