Israel is viewed as a military superpower, certainly regionally. That cannot be said for our sports prowess.

 Israel has won only seven Olympic medals, all since the Barcelona Games in 1992. We’re not too bad in several sports, particularly windsurfing and judo. Each have brought Israel three medals, including our only gold, won by windsurfer Gal Fridman in Athens in 2004. We’re also developing a world-class rhythmic gymnastics program.

In team sports, basketball is our regional forte, with Maccabi Tel Aviv reaching the final stages of almost every year’s Euroleague Championships, this year being a disappointing exception. Soccer is Israel’s most popular sport, and there’s an outside chance the national team might actually advance to the 2010 World Cup.

Israel also has a handful of excellent tennis pros. Shachar Pe’er is ranked 46th in the world, down from a career high 15th in 2007. Dudi Sela is slowly ascending the men’s rankings, currently sitting 57th, and Andy Ram and Yoni Erlich are among the world’s best doubles couplings, having won the Australian Open in 2008.

On March 8, Israel’s men’s tennis team advanced to the quarter-finals of the 2009 Davis Cup, after beating Sweden, in Malmo, 3-2. It was exhilarating. Going into the last day, we were behind 2-1. Sela won the day’s first match in five sets and the decisive fifth match also went to five sets. Harel Levy, ranked 212th in the world, won the last set 8-6. The victory places Israel among the world’s eight premier tennis teams. We’ll meet Russia in the quarter-finals, in Ramat Hasharon, in July.

The tension in Malmo wasn’t limited to the tennis arena. During the tournament, an Arab mob descended on the city, demonstrating violently against Israel and its tennis team’s participation in the Davis Cup, in the wake of Israel’s Gaza operation. Because of the threat of such protests, and despite their own team’s objections, Swedish authorities decided the matches would be played without spectators. On the sporting level, that was probably in Israel’s favour, because it deprived the Swedes of home-team advantage, but in a broader sense, it was troubling.

There have been several similar incidents in the last couple of months. In February, Pe’er was denied a visa into the United Arab Emirates and participation in the Dubai Tennis Championships. As a result, one sponsor pulled out of the tournament, and the Tennis Channel decided not to give it any air time, but the competition went on anyway.

Even more disturbing, in January, a Turkish mob in Ankara forced the Bnei Hasharon basketball team to flee to its locker room after coins and bottles, as well as chants of “Allah Akbar” and “Death to the Jews,” were hurled at them. All this came before the game against a local team even began. Astoundingly, after two hours, the referee demanded that the Israeli team return to the court to play, asserting that order had been restored. When it refused, the Turkish team was awarded a victory.

Sports stadiums are not the only arenas were Israel and Israelis are being attacked. Academics, trade unions and so-called intellectuals around the western world are seeking to end co-operation with Israel’s academic and research institutions, to boycott Israeli companies and goods, and to divest from firms that do business with Israel. CUPE Ontario is an ignoble example.

Criticism of Israel and its policies is legitimate. Branding it an apartheid state and calling for boycotting all things Israeli are not. There’s no denying we’re the only democracy in a region that would happily to be rid of us (as would many “enlightened” westerners). Our elected government is tasked with ensuring that this doesn’t happen and that Israelis can live securely. Critics say it carries out that duty too heavy-handedly, and while a vociferous debate within Israel encompasses all aspects of the issue, the government’s actions don’t justify turning Israel and Israelis into pariahs.

Successful Israelis – whether in academia, commerce, the arts or sports – are mud in the eyes of our enemies and detractors. But that’s the beauty of this country. Despite adversity, so many good things have flourished.

Come see our boys take on the Russians in Ramat Hasharon.