Guest Columnist | No simple answers

As Modern Israel approaches its 61st birthday, there is much to celebrate. Yet existential threats and challenges still haunt the tiny Jewish state. The new government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu is bolstered by the inclusion of the Labor Party, shifting an otherwise right-wing coalition more toward the center. Security is the paramount issue of the day, with Iran racing toward nuclear capability and its proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas, continuing to project a hateful jihadist ideology toward Israel.

Israelis have also grown weary of the international community's disproportionate criticisms levied against their country. It seems that no amount of concessions or withdrawals affords it the legitimacy to defend its citizenry against unending attacks across internationally recognized borders.

It should be remembered that Israel withdrew all settlement communities from Gaza in 2005. Yet rockets continued to rain on southern Israel, long before Israel imposed a partial blockade against the Hamas government, after its violent takeover of Gaza in June of 2007. Attacks against Israel escalated to intolerable levels last December, leaving Israel with no other viable option but to respond forcefully, and so it launched Operation Cast Lead.

Never in modern history has a military gone to such lengths to minimize civilian casualties, dropping leaflets, making thousands of warning cellphone calls, suspending missions, and using precision bombing whenever possible. And this against an implacable enemy that deliberately embeds itself in civilian populations.

There are no simple answers when it comes to prosecuting such asymmetrical wars. Forty percent of Israeli Defense Force casualties came from friendly fire, a harsh reminder of those difficulties, compounded by the inherent confusion in the fog of war. Yet Israel has been excoriated by a world quick to judge and condemn. Accusations of war crimes abound, ironically, with the loudest hectoring coming from the very countries that participated in NATO air bombardments in Kosovo in 1999, when NATO aircraft flew more than 38,000 combat missions, killing as many as 1,500 civilians in a 10-week period.

Meanwhile, Durban ll, the United Nations World Conference against Racism in Geneva this week, is proving to be a repeat of the thinly veiled Israel hate-fest that took place back in 2001 in South Africa, this time with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as "the guest of honor." The unasked question: why is Israel singled out and held to an impossible standard of perfection, when all around her human rights abuses are daily occurrences?

Understandably then, Israelis are less than sanguine about the prospects for a quick resolution of hostilities, living in a region rife with hateful ideologies and genocidal intentions against the Jewish people. Still, the Netanyahu government has committed itself to working to help the Palestinians in the West Bank build a civil society from the bottom up, creating the necessary infrastructures and economic prosperity that will be the prerequisite for any viable, future Palestinian state.

So what's to celebrate? The enduring, indomitable spirit of the Israeli people, who despite all the adversity, continue to build a thriving, dynamic society. All around Israel construction is booming, the arts are flourishing, and scientific advances keeps Israel on the cutting edge of today's technological revolution.

Israel is a leader in green technology, from wind to solar energy to electric cars that will one day run on national grid lines. Recently, Israeli geneticist Professor Karen Avraham uncovered tiny molecules called microRNA's, in the inner ears of mice, a discovery that could lead to the cure of human deafness. At Poria Hospital in Tiberias, the number of languages, cultures and religious practices in one ward often outnumbers the medical staff.

This is part of the rich tapestry of modern Israel that continues to inspire and hold out hope that someday, all peoples of the Middle East can live together in harmony, prosperity and peace.

David Brumer of Seattle is on the executive committees of StandWithUs/Northwest & the Seattle Chapter of the American Jewish Committee.