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Israel opens anniversary celebrations

Dan Tichon, right, performs the torch lighting, marking the end of Memorial Day and the beginning of Independence Day

April 29, 1998
Web posted at: 4:48 p.m. EDT (2048 GMT)

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Recalling its anguished rise from the ashes of the Holocaust half a century ago, Israel launched its 50th birthday celebrations on Wednesday evening with a solemn ceremony followed by festive fireworks. But as a nation not quite at war, yet hardly at peace, the Jewish state also said it must maintain military strength to reach peace with its Arab neighbors.

"We are in the very midst of the process of achieving peace with the Palestinian people," said Dan Tichon, the speaker of Israel's parliament during the torch-lighting ceremony on Jerusalem's Mount Herzl.

The torch lighting signaled the start of country-wide festivities lasting at least two days.

Netanyahu speaks at the beginning of Israeli Independence Day 2 min. VXtreme video

"The road to peace is long, paved with obstacles and difficulties. There are failures and successes," said Tichon, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party.

"We have chosen the path to peace. We believe that peace will, indeed, come soon. But there can be no peace without security."

At a memorial service Wednesday, Netanayhu honors the soldiers killed in service to Israel

Protecting Israel from those obstacles, he said, was "an ever stronger Israel defense force. Our army is our guarantee for the existence and the preservation of peace."

Tichon also:

• Invited Arab leaders to visit Israel, "a state founded on freedom, liberty, justice and democracy."

• Called on secular and ultra-Orthodox Israelis who have differing views on Jewish law to "live in mutual respect ... No one should force his opinions on another," Tichon said.

The crowd watches as Netanyahu finishes speaking Wednesday night in Jerusalem

Netanyahu, who took the podium after Tichon, read excerpts from the declaration of Israeli independence issued 50 years ago by then-prime minister David Ben-Gurion.

Mount Herzl -- named for a 19th-century Zionist visionary who did not live to see the founding of the Jewish state -- also was the site of a memorial service earlier in the day as Israelis mourned the thousands of men and women who died fighting to create and defend the Jewish state.

Correspondent Jerrold Kessel, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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