Israel remembered its 22,123 fallen soldiers and terrorism victims. The Jewish state came to a standstill Monday night as sirens ushered in Memorial Day, a 24-hour annual mourning period that will be followed by the jubilation of Independence Day. Throughout Israel, the bereaved visited cemeteries while state television and radio stations broadcast tales of the servicemen and women slain in the line of duty, or of civilian lives claimed by Arab terrorism. Some voiced hope that, one day, the violence would stop. “I promise you, and every soldier and warrior, and their families, that I will do everything in my power to strengthen the security of the State of Israel and put it on the path to peace,” Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in an address at Mount Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem.
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