/ 8 May 2008

Israel marks 60th birthday amid regional tension

Israel on Thursday threw a huge birthday bash to celebrate 60 tumultuous years during which the Jewish state made great strides forward but failed to achieve peace with its neighbours.

Military air shows topped the programme with war planes being put through their paces in sunny skies even as a dark cloud hung over the political future of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is under a corruption investigation.

Military bases opened their gates to the public to show off some of the mighty arsenal used by an army well tested in six decades of conflicts.

Thousands of Israelis prepared picnics and barbecues and were expected to consume an estimated 13-million burgers, steaks, sausages and kebabs.

But security forces were also on high alert amid concerns that Palestinian militants could use the celebrations to launch attacks. The authorities imposed a security lockdown on the occupied West Bank.

Sixty years after its creation in the aftermath of the Nazi Holocaust, the Jewish state remains mired in a seemingly intractable conflict with neighbours still technically at war and with the Palestinians still struggling for their own state.

And as beach parties were in full swing on Thursday, the political establishment braced for a potential shake-up amid uncertainty over Olmert’s political future after he was questioned by the anti-fraud squad last Friday.

Olmert, who is already the subject of three police inquiries into allegations of fraudulent property transactions and abuse of power, has denied any wrongdoing and insisted that he will continue his duties as premier.

The potential scandal has cast a shadow over this year’s Independence Day events, intended to showcase Israel’s achievements over the years.

The country enjoys a stable economy on a par with most Western states, a powerful military, a booming high-tech sector and what is thought to be the region’s sole if undisclosed nuclear arsenal.

It also enjoys strong support from the United States, whose President, George Bush, will join the birthday celebrations next week.

“Obviously coming to celebrate Israel’s 60th anniversary is both symbolism and substance,” US national security adviser Stephen Hadley said in Washington.

During his trip Bush will “reaffirm his personal commitment to peace”, the White House aide said.

Long-moribund peace talks with the Palestinians were revived at a US-hosted conference in November but have made little progress since then, and to this day neither Israel’s capital nor its borders are universally recognised.

Palestinians stayed away from the celebrations and mark the anniversary as the commemoration of the “Naqba” — Arabic for catastrophe — in reference to the shock defeat of the Arab armies that invaded immediately after Israel was established, and the creation of about 700 000 Palestinian refugees.

Today, the West Bank is a patchwork of simmering refugee camps, besieged Palestinian towns and Israeli settlements, where movement is restricted by the Israeli separation barrier and hundreds of military roadblocks.

The Gaza Strip has been overrun by the Islamist Hamas movement, which along with other armed groups launches frequent rocket and mortar attacks on Israel, which has imposed a crippling blockade on the impoverished sliver of land.

On Israel’s northern border, the armed wing of Lebanon’s Shi’ite movement Hezbollah — which Israel battled to a bloody 34-day stalemate in 2006 — remains committed to the country’s destruction and is reportedly preparing for another war. — AFP