Reply #2: Israelis are not in a partying mood [View All]

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Israelis are still gloomy about the country's perceived failures in the 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, and every day brings fresh reminders that no solution has been found for the growing problem of cross-border rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.

"I don't see Israel as a failure, but what makes this anniversary less of a celebration is that we cannot proclaim a happy ending," veteran Israeli journalist Nahum Barnea, a columnist for the daily Yediot Achronot, said in an interview. "We did not reach a point that we can say, 'OK, the period of state building is finished, and now we can live happily after.'"

The contradictions of life here can be painful. Israel has an outwardly robust economy that produces high-tech giants but also a record number of people living in poverty. There is a feeling of security that has come with a decline in terrorism-related deaths, but also a widespread resignation that peace remains a distant dream.

All this, to say nothing of government corruption, one of the problems most troubling Israelis.

http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=19312