My eight-year-old son, Maytav, came home from school beaming with pride. He told us that he had learned all about earthquakes and proceeded to tell us the geological causes of them. Maytav told us about seismic activity, fault lines and the disruptions in the Earth’s crust. He kept telling us more and more. The words came out of his mouth at a very excited pace. Then he told us that there had been an earthquake in Haiti.

Maytav has been blessed with a very good teacher who teaches the children about current events and uses the news as an opportunity to educate them not only about world events but also about school subjects, increasing the relevancy of their studies and sparking interest that motivates the class. In this case, the earthquake in Haiti was the springboard for teaching the children about the nature of earthquakes. But it went a step further.

Maytav went on telling us how Israel sent doctors and supplies across the ocean to help the people in Haiti. As he spoke of this, he became even more excited and I understood why he had been so proud. All he had told us that he had learned about earthquakes was a prelude to tell us how Israel had helped the earthquake victims. He even told us how a baby had been born in the Israeli field hospital and named “Israel.”

In our daily life, among the stress, the deadlines, the disappointments and the negative headlines, we often forget how much we have to be thankful for. Beyond that, we forget how much Israel has accomplished in a very short amount of time and how much we, in our own lives have achieved.

Israel has existed for my entire life. However, it was only a little more than 60 years ago that Israel was created. In this neighborhood, it takes a special breed of tenacity to survive. This pioneering spirit, coupled with Israeli hutzpa has not only given birth to the Jewish State, it has made the deserts bloom and per capita Israel has given birth to more technological innovations improving the world-wide quality of life than any place outside of Silicon Valley.

We have a lot to be proud of. Yet, my eight-year-old will grow up and he will have to fight for survival in a hostile environment. He will be drafted and he will have friends who are killed, either in active service or through terrorist attacks.

Israel is an innovator in so many things except in what impacts us most.

We are good at developing weapons and defenses. We are leaders in medicine so we can heal the wounds we incur. However we have not learned how to prevent conflict or negotiate compromise and we suffer for it.

Before the earthquake in Haiti, the Israeli daily newspaper Ha’aretz published an editorial with the headline, “Israel needs to rethink its Gaza strategy before it’s too late.”

I read it and thought, “You think?”

Is it not obvious that we are failing against our own self-interests by letting Gaza fester? We have tried a military option. We have tried a blockade. Yet still Hamas is in power and Gilad Shalit has not returned. There are still terrorist infiltrations and missiles launched on Israel’s southern border. What is more, the situation for Gazans has worsened, which even with the myopic policies of the Israeli government, one must realize is creating an explosive situation that will not benefit Israelis.

Eighty percent of Gaza’s 1.5- million residents are now living below the poverty line. This is due to Israel and Egypt’s double blockade of Gaza and Israel’s Operation Cast Lead, which sent missiles into 60,000 homes and factories. Since then, thousands of people have been living without running water and tens of thousands without electricity. The economy of Gaza has come to a standstill.

How is it that we take such pride in sending rescue missions half-way across the world when we inflict much more widespread damage to people who share our borders and our future in a much more immediate way?

Why can we not figure out a way to improve the lives of the children in Gaza so that one day my son Maytav will be able to conduct business and share in prosperity with them?

Would it not be in Israel’s best interests to aide non-governmental organizations in rebuilding Gaza and to be part of the process creating new infrastructure for shared economic growth?

The pain of birth is tremendous, and yet the benefits are well worth it. We have helped give birth to our own country and to innovations that benefit the world’s population. We have helped save lives around the world and facilitated the birth of a child named Israel in the Haitian wreckage.

We can be proud of all that Israel has accomplished in the past. Now it is time to look closer to home and plan for our future. .