DY: Yeah, I should have said “to anyone Frum who celebrates Yom Ha’atma’ut”.
LF: Yes. The British Mandate expired on Friday night at midnight. They declared independence hours earlier to avoid Chillul Shabbos. I think that’s a pretty good thing, honestly.
mw13: There were Frum people also involved in founding the State. Some wanted to end Frumkeit. Others saw this as a way to revitalize Frumkeit, which (as the Rav famously said) was floundering due to depression in response to teh Holocaust. I heard a Chareidi Rov (who is not pro the Medinah in the slightest) say that the reason HKBH created the State was to revitalize Yiddishkeit, which had lost tons of motivation after the horrors of the Holocaust. In 1948, everyone except for certain relatively small groups saw it as an amazing thing, warts and all. And yes, the warts are often a big deal.