Gamanit: We won’t need Yom Haatzmaut after all that happens. We can just celebrate on Tisha B’Av. Or all the time. Now, we get a minor holiday to celebrate what we do have. Isn’t it nice we can visit Israel or even move there without immediate threats to our safety (it’s probably actually safer there, due to the high murder rate here)?
Popa: Not good, but that’s nickles and dimes, in a broad historical perspective. The state is a big clumsy creature and bad decisions will sometimes be made. Blowing up the Al Aska Mosque and banning the non-Orthodox from the kotel isn’t exactly feasible at this juncture. Like I said this isn’t the geulah. But no one says it is — just perhaps the very early stages.