Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Minister Miri Regev who oversees Independence Day ceremonies and the Prime Minister's wife Sara Netanyahu met with the torch lighters ahead of the 78th Independence Day ceremony. Netanyahu told the torch lighters that 'this year we faced a huge test. If we had not acted with the strength of a lion and the roar of a lion, Iran would have atomic bombs - and that would be the beginning of the end of the Jewish people. This nation rises like a lion and fights like a lion.'

