Israel celebrates 60th anniversary amid tight security

ISRAEL yesterday celebrated its 60th anniversary with displays of military might and parties, as Palestinians marked the plight of hundreds of thousands who lost their land to the Jewish state.

Military air shows were among the crowd-pleasers, with warplanes going through their paces in sunny skies even as a dark cloud hung over the political future of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is under a corruption investigation.

Crowds also thronged military bases which opened their gates to the public to show off some of the mighty arsenal used by an army well-tested in six decades of conflicts.