European papers are following suit, and the BBC's World Service is carrying a week's worth of television programming that was six months in the making. Israel is playing the smiling host. It will mount a lavish stage production Thursday, and the military will be flying, sailing, parachuting and shooting in displays all around the country. Throughout this year, even the most routine occasion has been crowned a Jubilee Event. But the preparations have served to amplify the cynicism at home.
Critics charge the whole affair is colored by a right-wing agenda.
The current director, Doron Shmueli, acknowledged he had cut out any mention of the peace pact Israel signed with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat because of his personal dislike for Arafat. Only a public outcry forced Shmueli to include any mention in the Jubilee's historical highlights of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassination in 1995 by a right-wing Jew. Israeli peace groups had to go to court to be included in the Jubilee program. Efforts by the festival committee to win the hearts of Israelis largely seemed to flop. The incessant theme song of the festival's radio and television promotions has only irritated many Israelis.