a difficult and painful piece but i agree. the problem is though that most israelis are too hurt, defensive and insecure to handle any criticism which would challenge the legitimacy of their celebrations. they would see it as an attack on their very beings while at the same time they turn a blind eye to the fact that they are preventing independence from another people. this is situation is very difficult to solve, since israel's claim for independence is legitimate but so is the palestinian claim.  just as the holocaust and arab acts of terror make jews feel righteous in their policy towards the palestinians,so too do the palestinians who were expelled from the land and invaded by european immigrants feel entirely righteous in their claims and blind to the history of the jews.  nevertheless, since israel has a state and palestine is stateless, the responsibility falls on israel to make concessions. unfortunatley however, most israelis do not understand that recognizing the pain of the palestinians will not take away from their severity of their own history and instead constantly turn a blind eye to what they did to the palestinians,while hiding behind self-righteous arguments.