Israel's Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers is the country's most sensitive period. At this time, Israelis forget about the politics and polemics that tear the nation apart and wrap themselves in the mantle of collective grief. But this year, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon would not be deterred. He used his speech at the Memorial Day ceremony on May 11 to further his vociferous public dispute with the rest of the right-wing figures and political leaders in Israel, saying, "Woe to us if we lose our way … and our hallowed values that have accompanied us for generations. Compromising these values may well create a slippery slope to the abyss." Ya'alon added that Israelis must understand the limitations of power, "meticulously safeguard our purity of arms and our humanity, not lose our heads, … eradicate racism, violence, verbal and physical attacks on women and exclusion of the other."
This speech went over relatively peacefully. The following day, Israel celebrated its independence with fireworks, flags and cookouts. The air force put on an air show and filled the country's skies. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu surprised everyone when he announced that he supports a return to the Israel Defense Forces' tradition of holding military parades in Jerusalem. The IDF parade tradition ended on Independence Day in 1973, only a few months before the Yom Kippur War broke out. Netanyahu's initiative to bring the parade back was viewed as another right-wing ultranationalist gesture to mollify the Israeli electorate that has been steadily migrating to the right in recent years.