I think Labor Day is simply the first Monday in September. E.g., this year, September 1 is a Monday, and is Labor Day. However, Election Day in the US is the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
One more nitpicky comment: 1 Iyar is on the same day of the week as the following Rosh Hashanah, so it can never fall on Wednesday, so "the first Thursday after 1 Iyar" would sufficiently specify the date of Yom Ha'atzma'ut under this proposal, and the range of dates would be 3 to 8 Iyar. (Actually, just 3, 4, 6, or 8. So Yom Ha'atzma'ut observed could never actually fall on 5 Iyar, but Yom Hazikaron could.)
Anyway, I like the proposal. Though I hope the Knesset doesn't legislate the Hallel part. (It's weird enough that people (especially people outside Israel) say Hallel on a date that can be changed on the Knesset's whim, without the Knesset legislating Hallel itself.)
Another issue to deal with: for people who observe restrictions on music etc. during sefirah and waive these restrictions on Yom Ha'atzma'ut, would the restrictions be waived on 5 Iyar or the day of the public celebrations or both?
Your idea of making the civil part of YH have a civil-holiday-style date convention has some practical merit, but I don't like it.
I think it's great that every year that YH falls too close to Shabbat, every single Israeli (and other YH-celebrating Jew) is forced to ask "Why is this year different from all other years?" and then realizes that the celebration will be on a different day explicitly to prevent chillul Shabbat. If the civil celebration was fixed the way Labor Day is, most people would just assume that it's that way and not on 5 Iyar so that there will be a nice long weekend.
I also think it's great that the religious and civil celebrations are tied together. There is not one YH for chilonim and another for datiim, even if their celebrations might include different components.
Yes, this sort of scheduling is unprecedented*, but so is the creation of a joint religious/civil holiday in a Jewish state. This sort of compromise is symbolic of the kind of mutual accomodation that civil and religious society in Israel should make for each other. The civil observance is moved for the sake of Shabbat, and the religious observance is moved for the sake of unity. Beautiful.
(* Well, not totally. We don't blow shofar, a Mitzvah D'oraitah, on Shabbat, to protect people from mistakenly violating Shabbat.)
How is chillul Shabbat prevented? For any definition of Shabbat observance, people aren't going to change whether or not they observe Shabbat by that definition because of when Yom Ha'atzma'ut falls. People who don't barbecue on Shabbat still aren't going to barbecue even if it's Yom Ha'atzma'ut, and people who do barbecue on Shabbat will do it even if it isn't Yom Ha'atzma'ut.
And it's not really "different from all other years" -- under the current rules (when Yom Ha'atzma'ut can only be observed on Tues, Wed, or Thu), Yom Ha'atzma'ut is only observed on 5 Iyar in 29% of years (when 5 Iyar is on Wednesday), so moving it is the norm.
This sort of compromise is symbolic of the kind of mutual accomodation that civil and religious society in Israel should make for each other.
What about Jews outside Israel, who aren't part of Israeli civil society?
How is chillul Shabbat prevented?
No one is going to desecrate Shabbat in order to celebrate this civil/religious mandated holiday. Those who created the holiday are actively avoiding placing the proverbial tripwire in front of the blind. Similarly, if someone's distractable enough that the mitzvah of Shofar will get him confused enough that he'll march through the town square on Shabbat carrying the shofar, he's probably going to make other mistakes about carrying, anyway. But, we're going to do what we can to prevent it.
Also, you don't know who's going to barbecue, when (for example). Scheduling YH for Shabbat virtually guarantees that many people will barbecue on Shabbat, thus increasing the expected number of violations on that particular Shabbat.
Finally, the public observances, if held on Shabbat, would constitute a public desecration of Shabbat, which is more severe than a collection of individual violations.
And it's not really "different from all other years" -- under the current rules (when Yom Ha'atzma'ut can only be observed on Tues, Wed, or Thu), Yom Ha'atzma'ut is only observed on 5 Iyar in 29% of years (when 5 Iyar is on Wednesday), so moving it is the norm.
Everyone knows that the real date is on 5 Iyar. Part of the reason that they know this is that the holiday is observed, about 1/3 of the time, on 5 Iyar. So, the other years, majority or not, are clearly aberrant, and therefore raise the question of why. But whatever, we can disagree on this particular psychological supposition until someone takes a poll in Israel.
What about Jews outside Israel, who aren't part of Israeli civil society?
They also have a stake both in Shabbat and in unity.
Sorry, the previous comment was me again.
I've really had a problem about the "religious" observance of Yom Ha'atzmaut going hand-in-hand with the state-mandated date of celebration since last year. Since Yom Hazikaron was on a Sunday, everything was pushed back one day so that people doing to Yom Hazikaron observances at night wouldn't have to decide between driving on Shabbos and coming late. Thus, Yom Ha'atzmaut was observed and celebrated on 6 Iyar, leading to a situation where Hallel was said (by some) on the anniversary of the date that Israel was invaded by its Arab neighbors!
In response to the question of what should people outside of Israel do, they should move here. (I should note that this is not my original idea. Hashem beat me to it. See, e.g., Tanach.)
Do you think that you're a real centrist? Well, your answers to this checklist will help you in your quest for self-awareness.
What is your attitude toward chariedim?
a)indifferrence
b) you'll laugh at an anti-chardie joke
c) virulent animosity
Rabbi Soloveitchick was the greatest mind of ?
a) the fifities
b) forties
c) century
When there are a number of mutually exclusive interpretations of Rabbi Soloveitchick's statemtents, which one is correct?
a) all of them
b) only the most controversial
c) the one that is best suited for your lifestyle
When your daughter's date brings his tephilin, your reaction is
a) silence, because you don't want to impose your views
b) happy that she is conforming to societal norms
c) excstatic, at least the boy is not a charedie
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