If someone wishes to understand Jewish and Israeli thought and motives, s/he has to be attentive to this time of year.
Last week we celebrated the Passover, which symbolizes the Exodus from Egypt, but more important, the becoming of the Jewish nation; The mythical reunion with god and receiving his Torah in the desert. A week later, today, we commemorate the holocaust. Not to forget the industrialized murder of 6 million European Jews by the Nazis during the Second World War. Next week is the national Memorial Day for those killed in what we call the "Israel battles", meaning mainly the wars and conflicts in Israel since 1948. At the ending of this day we begin our Independence Day celebrations. This chain of events and memorials and their particular order and immediate succession, illustrate the narration upon which our existence as Jews in Israel draws its relevance and justification from. The special combination of events merging the religious and national aspirations into one inseparable entity - a Jewish state of Israel.

Today, the holocaust memorial day, I hear many interviews with first, second and third generation to survivors of the holocaust. It is interesting to hear the different approaches as to the lessons learned from this inconceivable chapter in history. The popular approach, claims that the main lesson is that Jews must always have land, fight and defend this home land in any cost. This lesson is easily taught in light of the history of Jews during the 2000 years in exile where anti-Semitism wasn't a Nazi invention.
Another approach I found interesting to confront with the previous one, is that the holocaust began, in a democratic process, when Jews and other sectors of the population, were deprived of their human and basic rights. A deprivation based on a certain ideology, backed by social, historical, religious and scientific "facts". The fact that masses of people, a whole nation (at least), cooperated and supported these ideologies and atrocities, is the big question.

The place of propaganda in the way we shape our knowledge and beliefs, the use of fear and hatred of the strange and different, the way leaders shape public opinions, whether they come from the media, religion, politics or show business, could be a part of the answer and the lesson to be taught.

Like someone said yesterday, the main lesson that the German people said to have learned was: Always be cautious in the beginnings!