Well, I'm in agreement with Jim on this. I think the Holocaust looms hugely in the mind of Israelis. How can it not?

What is different about them and your friend is that they are the survivors and the children and grandchildren of the survivors. They are INTIMATELY connected to the Holocaust. They KNEW people who died. And they see that unbelievable horror not as an abstract historical case of mankind's brutality, but a very personal, living memory.

And so their reaction, their 'reflection' to all of this is to protect themselves. Often too vigorously. But it's understandable to me why they refuse to sit around and pull their hair and weep about it. They don't have that luxury. And they intend to live despite their many enemies goals of destroying them.