"We hastened this day as best we could." ~Vladimir Kharitonov

On July 27th Rivka woke up early as usual - only this time she was in Moscow, therefore one hour earlier than usual - to the sound of her phone's surprisingly loud vibration on the wooden nightstand by her bed. Groaning, she tried to turn it off whilst staying curled under the warm blanket - which she failed, of course, and caused her to almost fall face-first off the bed. Letting out a surprised yelp, she managed to get a grip and save herself from the horror of a 50-centimeters-high fall, then cursed herself mentally. If Russia hadn't woke up before, he surely was awake now.

Usually while visiting and meeting with other Nations Israel would be staying at some local hotel, but for some reason Russia always insisted that she should stay at his place - which was weird at first, but later she'd found out that he did this with everyone. so it was an okay kind of weird. She figured it has something to do with his issues, but never asked - never tried to. As friendly and brother-like as he acted, he still seemed too unstable for that kind of question.

Almost fully awake now - 5:23 A.M. local time, 6:23 A.M. at home - and feeling too guilty about the noise to actually try and go back to sleep, she decided to check her phone anyway.

She was surprised to see that is was a text message from one of the Knesset members - Robert Ilatov, to be exact. She tapped on it, wondering if there was an emergency - probably not; she could feel the calm in her people's minds. What is it, then? What had happened?

Passed.

There was a moment of confusion, then Rivka realized what he was referring to. The bill. Passed. Oh God, it's actually happening. She couldn't remember when was the last time she felt so euphoric, so overwhelmed by thrill and pure joy, because of a law. In all the excitement that took over her she hadn't even notices Ivan standing at the door, hair ruffled from sleep, suppressing a yawn. "Having a good morning already, Izzy?"

She jumped in surprise, relaxing only when she saw it was him. "Vanya," she greeted him. "Sorry-"

"'t's okay," he waved it off. "Now, what was all that noise about?"

"Oh, you know," she said, a little smirk playing on her lips. "Just the bill."

His eyes widened. "The bill?"

"Technically speaking, the law," she was grinning now. "But yes."

A second later she was pulled into a bear-hug by the Russian, who was probably beaming just like her. "That makes another Victory Day. About time," he said half-jokingly. "And here I was planning to drag them all back here." He hesitated, then added: "You know how much I care about them."

She nodded. "Me, too. Which is why I'm going to do my best."

He squeezed her tighter. "I know you will."

They weren't always friends like that.

Back in 1947 he supported her establishment - birth, basically - but a few years later he, along with his boss and what seemed to be a great majority of his people, had turned against the young Jewish Nation and her people in his land. In the 70's they were imprisoned for the horrible crime of wishing to immigrate to Israel - which over 150,000 of them committed a few years afterwards.

Since not her bosses nor her brothers England and America were too happy about letting her meet up with powerful and unstable ("that's putting it mildly; dude's crazy and might've killed her if he got the chance," Alfred grunted once at that) Nations like Russia, she never really got to know him, never knew what to expect.

Well, at least not until 1994.

Things were starting to get better even before that, when the Soviets stopped messing with his mind, which also led to a mass immigration to her land. And whenever a plane landing was due, she had always tried to be there to welcome her people home, even if it meant that by the end of March 1994 she would be practically living in the airport.

One plane changed everything.

Standing outside, waiting for the aircraft that had just landed to stop, she hadn't noticed anything special about it. Not until the door opened, anyway.

First to step off the plane were two elders, followed by a middle aged man. However, she found herself at a loss of words when she recognized the next passenger standing at the door. "M-Mr. Russia," she blurted, surprised to see the familiar face. "I'm happy to wel-"

"Hello, Israel." The contraries were amazing, almost unnatural - he was so big, and there was something off about that glint in his eyes, yes his wide smile and cheerful voice seemed almost childish. "I want you to meet my friends."

Is the KGB here, too? "Umm, sure." Hopefully she hadn't sounded too worried.

He went back on board for a moment, and when he was back there were others with him - elderly men and women, age ranging from 70 to almost 90, each wearing different clothes, with one exception.

All of them wore coats decorated with countless medals.

Upon seeing this unusual group, the couple from before halted and started clapping, the man saying something in Russian and joining in, to which the elders responded with a спасибо and a kind smile. "These are my veterans," Russia explained. "Heroes of the Great Patrio- I mean, World War II." He then proceeded to introducing each by name and title: Dmitri, Defender of Leningrad; Yefim, Order of the Red Star; Ludmila, Night Witch; Anatoly, Hero of the Soviet Union; Vera, Capturer of Budapest. There was a look of pride on his face when he had finished, his voice shaking a little with emotion. "There are many others, on their way or already here, and before I leave I want to know that they will get all the honour and respect they deserve. Can you do that?"

Disregarding the subtle or else, Rivka could feel a flame igniting inside her. "Don't worry," she said determinedly. "I promise they will."

And, step by step, she was making sure that they did.

There was triumph in the air.

Victory Day - the 9th of May - had always had something electric and exciting about it, especially since victory parades, humble versions of the ones that have been taking place in Russia, were organized and executed. This year, the weather in Jerusalem was perfect, and the streets were flooded with people - veterans, their families, and those who march in the name of deceased relatives or simply in honor of the day and the heroes. Rivka already heard people telling the marchers "kol hakavod" multiple times this morning, saw someone get out of his car to help a veteran cross the road.

She hadn't come alone. Äre you sure you want to-" can "-do this?"

Vera laughed, slightly leaning on her walking stick for support. "Well, I'm still alive, aren't I?" Out of all the veterans Israel had met on that day Vera was the only one who arrived alone, with no family or friends. Upon discovering that, the Nation offered to serve, if needed, as her guide and companion in her new homeland. Throughout the years they spent a lot of time together, taking care of Vera's paperwork, going to the grocery store or even just sitting and talking, but one of Rivka's favourite times of the year was marching beside the veteran on victory parade, like they were doing now.

"Excuse me?" A gentle tug at her sleeve brought her train of thoughts to a stop. The Nation and the veteran turned to see a little girl, about seven or eight years old. Now that she had their attention the girl seemed to shy, turning to glance at her father, who nodded in reassurance, then hesitantly turned back "I-just wanted to say... spasibo."

Rivka felt a wave of emotion moving through her heart, body and soul.

Tears instantly welled up in Vera's eyes. "No," She smiled softly. "Thank you."

Israel finally kept her promise to the end.

In loving memory of Noah Kouzminsky, Yefim Dobrin and all Jewish veterans who hadn't lived to see this day.

Exactly one week ago, on July 26th 2017, a bill stating that the day on which Europe was victorious over the Nazis in World War II, generally known as Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day), will be a national holiday in Israel marked on May 9 passed the final reading. The new law will ensure that students, soldiers and the general public will hear the stories of the people who fought and defeated the Nazis in WWII, especially those of the 1.5 million Jewish soldiers, half a million of which served in the Red Army. The bill was proposed by Knesset (parliament) members Robert Ilatov, Oded Forer and Yulia Malinovsky.

As a great-granddaughter of two war veterans and a labour veteran I was very glad to hear about that, even if it was in the middle of night and about five minutes before I got on a plane from (ironically) Germany, and after a few days of hype I decided to write this (since I've been thinking about writing a fic with Israel for a long time now but didn't have any idea what to do), mostly to express my happiness, but also to let you guys out there read about it in a (hopefully) interesting way and not just from some news website. Hope I did a good job on that. Let me know what you thought!

Translations:

Spasibo (Russian) - Thanks, thank you

Kol hakavod (Hebrew) - well done, nice job